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THE NUMBER TWO PERSON IN AL QAEDA, AYMAN AL ZAWAHIRI, IS AN OLD AGENT OF THE FSB (KGB). AYMAN AL ZAWAHIRI, IN 1998, WAS IN THE TERRITORY OF DAGESTAN, WHERE FOR HALF A YEAR HE RECEIVED SPECIAL TRAINING AT ONE OF THE EDUCATIONAL BASES OF THE FSB. AFTER THIS TRAINING HE WAS TRANSFERRED TO AFGHANISTAN, HE PENETRATED THE MILIEU OF BIN LADEN AND SOON BECAME HIS ASSISTANT IN AL QAEDA. TOP OFFICIALS FROM THE UFSB OF DAGESTAN, WHO HAD DIRECTLY WORKED WITH AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI WERE CALLED TO MOSCOW AND RECEIVED HIGH POSTS...

Safe as houses: the KGB-proof mansion - Oligarch builds Surrey fortress May 6, 2007 by Mark Hollingsworth and Jack Grimston FOR an oligarch nervous about the future, it is the ideal bolthole. A Russian billionaire is spending tens of millions of pounds building a high-security “KGB-proof” mansion in Surrey. Peter Aven, head of the biggest private bank in Russia, is said by locals to have surrounded his 8.5acre property on the Wentworth estate near Virginia Water with “intelligent” electronic fencing and incorporated a bombproof shelter in the design. It also has a two-storey hexagonal guardhouse by the main entrance. The...

A new nationalist party has been founded in Russia seven months before parliamentary elections. A statement read out at the founding congress of the Great Russia party in Moscow today said the party aims to unite "hundreds of thousands of staunch Russian patriots." The founders of the party say it is "not a Kremlin project." In order to register as a party, Great Russia will have to meet stringent criteria, including having at least 5,000 members across Russia.

The United States backed Estonia Thursday in its escalating dispute with Russia over the removal of a Soviet war memorial, saying it was the Baltic state's internal affair and urging dialogue. Deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: ''We have urged the Estonian and Russian governments to maintain dialogue and respect for the strong feelings on both sides.'' Casey also expressed concern ''about continuing reports of violence and harassment, including harassment of Estonian diplomatic personnel and premises, in Moscow.'' The Estonian Embassy in Moscow has been under siege by pro-Kremlin youth activists since the removal last week of a...

moscow • Russia halted deliveries of oil products to Estonia yesterday in a move that coincided with protests in Moscow over the Baltic state’s relocation of a Soviet war memorial. The cut-off was likely to revive Western fears the Kremlin is using its energy might as a political weapon against ex-Soviet neighbours. Russia’s state rail monopoly said it planned to carry out maintenance on the rail link to Estonia, disrupting supplies. Coal exporters said Russian railways had also halted exports of steam coal via Estonia for this month, totalling up to 900,000 tonnes, citing a shortage of railway wagons. They...

Police have arrested Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov at a banned anti-Kremlin rally in central Moscow. He was detained during a huge security operation to prevent opponents of President Putin gathering at Pushkin Square. The former chess champion leads the United Civil Front group, part of the opposition coalition Other Russia. It accuses President Putin's regime of trampling on democracy. The Kremlin says Other Russia destabilises Russia. Mr Kasparov was seen inside a police van waving and smiling at gathered media after his arrest, the Associated Press said. Reports say dozens of other opposition activists were arrested, as well...

Former Putin Colleague Becomes Election Chief Churov has vowed to be impartial during upcoming elections (TASS) March 27, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Russia's Central Election Commission has chosen Vladimir Churov, a former colleague of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as its new chairman ahead of key elections. Churov was elected today in a vote by the 15 members of the election commission. Thirteen members voted for him, two against. ? Churov's nomination comes ahead of key parliamentary elections in December 2007 and a presidential election in 2008. ? 'Work To Do'Speaking today at a commission meeting in Moscow, Churov pledged the body...

Riot police wielding truncheons broke up an opposition rally in a central Russian city on Saturday, beating and detaining dozens of activists. It was the second major anti-government protest by liberal and leftist forces this year to be broken up by police as the country prepares for December parliamentary elections and next year's presidential vote. President Vladimir Putin, who is constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term, has given strong hints he would pick a favoured successor. Opposition groups have accused the Kremlin of further consolidating control over the country's political life ahead of elections to make sure...

The invisible hand... of the Kremlin Capitalism 'a la russe' This study describes the two main economic processes observed in Russia during President Vladimir Putin's second term; renationalisation, and the concentration of economic assets. As a result of these processes, the share of state-owned property has increased and the position of the state in the economy has strengthened. According to the authorities, the wide-range renationalisation of the assets and the construction of superholdings based on the state enterprises are intended to boost Russia's potential and stimulate the development of the whole economy. However, in practice the current ruling elite are...

RUSSIAN investigators have raided the Moscow office of PWC, stepping up pressure on the "big four" audit firm ahead of a crucial court case over allegations that it signed off on false accounts by Yukos, the bankrupt oil company. About 20 law enforcement officials from the prosecutors' office and interior ministry on Friday combed PWC's offices for documents relating to Yukos and questioned senior managers. including Mike Kubena, head of PWC in Moscow, the company said. Interior ministry officials also announced they were launching a criminal probe into alleged tax avoidance by PWC in Russia. The search came as PWC...

Four out of five members of Russia's political and business elite have a KGB past, according to a new study by the prestigious Academy of Sciences. The influence of ex-Soviet spies has ballooned under President Vladimir Putin...

<p>FBI agents say they are assisting police in suburban Washington who are investigating the shooting of a Russian expert — a man who spoke out on "Dateline NBC" last weekend and strongly suggested that remnants of the KGB were responsible for the bizarre poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko.</p>

The top U.S. intelligence official says Russia has taken a step backward in its democratic progress. Mike McConnell (in photo), who became U.S. Director of National Intelligence last week, told a Senate committee on February 27 that Moscow could be heading toward a controlled succession to President Vladimir Putin in 2008. He said there were "more arrangements to control the process and the populace and the parties to the point of picking the next leader of Russia." Putin's second term expires next year, and he is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term as president.

Thank you, Vladimir Putin. Thank you for confirming that the Cold War is very much alive and that your nation is responsible for keeping it so. After all, it is far better for us to know absolutely who you are and what your intentions continue to be. Thank you for confirming that we can trust the Soviets to be Soviets and that nothing has changed in your country except that you found it convenient after the Berlin Wall fell to act "American." Your words changed: "Comrade" became "citizen," "Premier" became "President." Western styles found you clothed in sharp suits...

Caligula considered making his horse a consul, but President Vladimir Putin is content merely to take advice from his own four-legged friend, he told journalists today. When Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, met Mr Putin in 2004, the Russian leader appeared to have eyes only for Koni The Russian leader said he fell back on counsel from Koni, his black Labrador, whenever he felt angry with the world. "As far as bad moods go, of course I have them like any other person, but in those cases I try to consult with my dog Koni. "She gives me...

Many remember Leonid Brezhnev as a mumbling dotard with dark bushy eyebrows and a cuirass of medals pinned on his broad chest. But more Russians today would rather live under Brezhnev, who would have turned 100 on Tuesday, than any other Soviet or post-Soviet leader, with the exception of President Vladimir Putin. "Brezhnev himself lived well, and he allowed others to live," said Marina Pukhalskaya, a Moscow pensioner who received free higher education, a relatively prestigious job as a civil engineer and, eventually, a free apartment during an 18-year rule that some quipped would never end. People who knew...

Moscow refuses to extradite anyone tied to the death of former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London even if possible suspects are unearthed by a team of British investigators now in Russia, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said Tuesday. "If they want to arrest them, it would be impossible," Chaika said at a news conference, referring to the investigators. "They are Russian citizens, and the Russian Constitution makes that impossible." The British investigators, from Scotland Yard, arrived in Moscow late Monday as part of the inquiry into the Nov. 23 poisoning death of Litvinenko, who had been a Federal Security Service...

Russia named its price yesterday for providing help in the investigation into the death by poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. It demanded that Britain hand over the enemies of President Putin who have been given asylum in London.The ultimatum came as Russian officials imposed strict limits on how Scotland Yard detectives will be allowed to operate as they began their investigation in Moscow. The strict conditions threatened to deepen the diplomatic rift between Moscow and London caused by the death last month by radioactive polonium-210 poisoning of Litvinenko. John Reid, the Home Secretary, pledged this week that no diplomatic obstacles would...

WASHINGTON -- An old saying in politics in Moscow is that relations between the United States and Russia are always better when a Republican rules in the White House. We are statesmen, and the Republicans are statesmen. Because we both believe in power, it is easy for the two of us to understand each other. The problem with this saying is the paranoid mind-set behind it, for it implies that the nature of Russian-U.S. relations has not changed fundamentally since the Cold War's end -- that the animosities that exist between the two countries are those of two permanently implacable...

Police fear that the murder of a former Kremlin spy may have been part of a double killing plot after a second man was taken to hospital last night with radiation poisoning. The Anti-Terror Group is examining whether the killers of Alexander Litvinenko also tried to poison Mario Scaramella, an Italian security expert who met the Russian exile on the day that he fell ill. Toxicologists confirmed yesterday that Mr Scaramella had also been contaminated by a “significant” amount of deadly polonium-210. The level leads them to suspect that it was more than he could have ingested from simple physical...

"Oh, come on, Rush! It's much ado about nothing. It's just one spy wiping out another spy." It's Russians wiping out a spy. Now you've got Putin sending air defense systems to Iran who's going to bail us out of Iraq, threatening Israel. You've got Putin sending missiles and rockets and warheads and helping Iran with its nuclear program, and all of this combined, then you've got the Baker report, the Iraq study group report and Chuck Hagel and a bunch of courageous, brave American Democrats and Republicans saying, "We gotta honorably pull out of there. We gotta get out...

THE COLD WAR was supposed to have ended 15 years ago, but the death in London of Alexander V. Litvinenko presents Scotland Yard with more than your average murder mystery. The former Russian spy and fierce critic of the Kremlin was poisoned. But how and by whom? The tale began Nov. 1 at itsu, a busy London sushi restaurant near Piccadilly Circus that features a Madame Butterfly Zinger, Squirrels Dreams and something called Bang Bang Free Range Chicken. Poison is definitely not on the menu. Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and a KGB successor agency,...

“Well you’re the obvious guy, uh, spirit, to ask about this stuff, because you spent most of your career watching the KGB didn’t you?” It was rhetorical, needless to say. I had finally connected with the shade of the late James Jesus Angleton after several dropped communications via the ouija board, and now that I had him I wanted to find out what he thought about the melodramatic death of former KGB agent (or FSB…whatever) Alexander Litvinenko in London. Ian Fleming couldn’t have invented a wilder story.....

SMOLENSK, Russia -- The era of brutal score-settling is far from over in Russia, especially in this hard-bitten western city where the nexus of business and politics usually yields volatile results. Eduard Kachanovsky, a freshman city councilman who rankled city officials and their moneyed business allies with investigations into shady real estate deals and missing cash, recently learned that lesson. The officials had warned him for months to stop digging. Each time, he ignored them. On the morning of Oct. 17, Kachanovsky was walking through his apartment building lobby on the way to work when two men dressed as...

LONDON - A former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic who was poisoned three weeks ago was moved into intensive care Monday after his condition deteriorated, and his doctor said the toxin has attacked his bone marrow. Prominent Russian exiles claimed Litvinenko was poisoned at the behest of the Kremlin... Thallium causes hair loss and interferes with the cardiovascular and nervous systems, attacking the vital organs. Litvinenko's white cell count is down to nearly zero, said Dr. John Henry, a clinical toxicologist treating him. "It shows his bone marrow has been attacked and that he is susceptible to infection," Litvinenko, who...

MOSCOW, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - The presidents of Russia and Belarus said Friday they will be guided by free market principles as they seek to broaden bilateral economic ties, the Kremlin press office reported.

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kolesnikov) -President Vladimir Putin has left the audience intrigued once again. He is not ready to name his successor yet, he said, and believes that Russian people have to "determine who is the strongest candidate." At the same time, he did promise to name someone. "Of course, as any Russian citizen, I reserve the right of choice at a vote and I do not believe that I should give up my right to express my opinion in mass media," he said. "I will talk about it when the time is right." It is not...

Various theories have circulated regarding who might have murdered the journalist Anna Politkovskaya on October 7, and why. According to these, she was targeted by nationalist extremists, or by Russian military officers that she had named in connection with human rights abuses in Chechnya, or by Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, whose alleged abuses she had chronicled in great detail. Two days after her murder, the website of Politkovskaya’s newspaper, Novaya gazeta, said it was either an act of revenge by Kadyrov or carried out by “those who want suspicions to fall on the current Chechen premier, who, having passed...

Russia is correct to argue that energy security is a two-way street, former U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania Keith Smith told the Prague Energy Forum today. However, he noted, many in the Kremlin seek not merely security, but control. Below, RFE/RL presents the complete text of Smith's remarks to the forum.Keith Smith: The prominent attention given energy issues at the EU-Russia "summit" in Lehti, Finland, on October 20 was quite illustrative. The summit demonstrated that there is a converging perception in Western and Central Europe regarding the risks of energy dependency on Russia. This may or may not be fair,...

Russia starts deporting Georgian immigrants (Filed: 07/10/2006) President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia called on the West to denounce Kremlin "xenophobia" yesterday after Russia began to expel Georgian immigrants from its borders in an escalation of the dispute with its southern neighbour. Georgian citizens arrive at Tbilisi airport after being deported from Russia He said the international community should be deeply alarmed after Russia's latest retaliation in a row ostensibly sparked by last week's arrest of four Russian officers accused of spying in Georgia. Some 150 immigrants were rounded up and deported by Russian police yesterday. Officers demanded that schools draw...

As Vladimir Putin nears the end of what he insists will be his last term as president, analysts can not help but notice how different the country is today from the one he inherited from his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, in 2000. Most critics have focused on the way the Kremlin has increased its control of the media and eliminated regional gubernatorial elections. There have also been far-reaching changes in the ownership and management of several of the country's largest and richest energy and metals companies, however. Here, too, the Kremlin once again has begun to play a more intrusive role....

Kremlin 'bullying' leaves western energy companies furious By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow (Filed: 23/09/2006) In the past few years, mention of Vladimir Putin at the dinner table of some western leaders could have brought on a case of indigestion. In the past week, though, the Russian president has been causing ulcers. Sakhalin Energy extracts oil and gas from one of the world's most inhospitable regions On Monday, Russia suspended an environmental permit for an oil and gas project led by Royal Dutch Shell on Sakhalin Island in the Pacific Ocean. The international community has watched with queasiness as democracy in...

House passed the minimum wage bill 230-180.. The bill would increase the minimum wage to $7.25 over the next three years. Republican 196-21 Democrat 34-158-1 Will post voting lists as soon as possible. Bill was HR 5970 if you want to look it up.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that Russia had helped his country break a U.S.-imposed "blockade" by agreeing to sell Caracas fighter planes and helicopters worth billions of dollars. Neither Chavez nor Russian leader Vladimir Putin gave details about any new deals signed Thursday, but Russia's defense minister said last week that Moscow had agreed to sell the oil-rich South American nation about 30 Su-30 fighter jets and some 30 military helicopters. Putin said Thursday that Moscow and Caracas would prove "reliable partners" and - in comments clearly aimed at Washington - said their cooperation should not be viewed as...

A storm is brewing in Surgut, the seemingly sleepy hometown of Kremlin-friendly oil company Surgutneftegaz. Discontent over wages and management tactics is driving thousands of workers onto the streets in protest. Managers at the closely held company may be sitting on a cash pile estimated at more than $13 billion from sky-high oil prices, but the sense of prosperity is not felt by many of the firm's thousands of workers, say workers at the company, who have set up a fledgling independent union to make their case for better conditions. The frustrations first broke out into the open during the...

Putin wants hostages' killers hunted down By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer 29 minutes ago MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia's special services to hunt down and "destroy" the killers of four Russian diplomats in Iraq, the Kremlin said. Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Federal Security Service — the main successor to the Soviet KGB — later said that everything would be done to ensure that the killers "do not escape from responsibility," the Interfax news agency reported. "The president has ordered the special forces to take all necessary measures to find and destroy the criminals...

The rally last December was one of nearly a dozen paid-for protests organized by Russian émigrés in the U.S. in the past two years. They spent $150,000 to $200,000 in some months, accounting records indicate, to rally thousands of demonstrators near spots such as United Nations headquarters and the World Trade Center site. State-controlled Russian television, whose content is closely guided by Kremlin handlers, covered some of the events, often as the only news organ present, showing video of them on the evening news back home. Boris Barshevsky at a pay-for-protest rally in Queens, N.Y., last year. Organizers said the...

Seeking to free four Russian hostages, Moscow is negotiating with the al-Qaida-led terrorist group that tortured and murdered two U.S. soldiers. The speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house, Sergei Mironov, said negotiations are ongoing with the Mujahedeen Shura Council, according to the English-language Moscow News. The council, led by al-Qaida in Iraq, is an umbrella organization of five terrorist groups in the country.

The Kremlin chief of staff puts a positive spin on disagreements with the WestTHE Kremlin has launched a diplomatic offensive to repair frayed relations between Russia and the West and rescue preparations for a key summit that President Putin will host in St Petersburg this summer. Amid fears of a return to Cold War suspicion, the Russian presidential chief of staff made an unprecedented visit to Downing Street this week to defuse tensions that could undermine the annual G8 meeting of the world’s most powerful leaders. Sergei Sobyanin, who held talks with Jonathan Powell, his British counterpart, said that he...

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin warned yesterday that the U.S.-Russian arms race is not over and called for a strengthening of his nation's nuclear and conventional forces so Moscow can better resist foreign pressure.     The remarks, in his seventh state of the nation address since taking power in 2000, follow increasingly sharp criticism of Russia's democratic and foreign policy directions from the United States, including a harsh rebuke by Vice President Dick Cheney last week in Lithuania.     "It is premature to speak of the end of the arms race," said Mr. Putin, who pointed out in the nationally televised address...

Americans were rightly outraged over the possibility of an Arab nation with ties to terrorists taking control of six major American ports. Protests from across the nation helped to squelch the deal. However, the job’s not finished. The Communist Chinese still control ports at Long Beach. Congressman Charlie Norwood, (R-GA) made a strong case for getting the Chinese out of the port of Long Beach when he noted that while Dubai has been a reliable partner for America in the War on Terror, Red Chinese officials have threatened invasion of America’s ally on Taiwan and nuclear war against the United...

THE career of President Vladimir Putin of Russia was built at least in part on a lie, according to US researchers. A new study of an economics thesis written by Putin in the mid-1990s has revealed that large chunks of it were copied from an American text. Putin was labelled a plagiarist yesterday after a pair of researchers at the Brookings Institution, a Washington DC think tank, established that the Russian president’s academic credentials were based on a dissertation he had lifted in part verbatim from the Russian translation of a management study written by two professors at the University...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a package of legislative amendments creating the legal foundations for CIS citizens to serve in the Russian army on a contract basis

Commentary on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Washington this week has described his country as an "emerging power." That will certainly play really well back in Moscow and be music to the ears of President Vladimir Putin, whose ambition since taking power has been to restore Russia to its former seat on the international stage. Ambitions and rhetoric, however, don't necessarily make it so. Russia rather seems to be on a path toward becoming something like Saudi Arabia with nukes -- repressive internally and in overall economic decline, but wielding clout in the relationship with the West because...

Russia’s foreign minister indicated Wednesday he was opposed to sanctions in response to the Iranian nuclear crisis, a day after U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said Iran would face consequences if it persisted in defying the international community. Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday Moscow opposed both U.N. Security Council sanctions and military action because such measures rarely achieve their intended goals. Lavrov's announcement came hours after Iran threatened the United States with “harm and pain” for its role in hauling Tehran before the Security Council.

VENEZUELAN military officers have started classes in unconventional warfare to repel an invasion left-wing President Hugo Chavez warns Washington is planning. Snipers draped in foliage and civilian reservists armed with knives, catapults and handguns crawled out of a hidden tunnel in a mock demonstration as an instructor lectured officers on resistance tactics. Captains joined lieutenants straining behind a cordon to see another soldier camouflaged inside tree perch as he fired a bow and peppered a uniformed dummy target with arrows. "If no one comes, then that's fine, we can continue as the free and sovereign country we are, but we...

U.S. Report Says Russia Is Not a Reliable Partner By George Gedda The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Russia's emergence as an increasingly authoritarian state could impair U.S.-Russian ability to cooperate on key international security issues, according to an analysis by a major U.S. foreign policy organization released on Sunday. Continuation of Russia's drift away from democratic norms under President Vladimir Putin "will make it harder for the two sides to find common ground and harder to cooperate even when they do," said the report, which was issued by the Council on Foreign Relations. It warned that some critical problems cannot...

Fifty Years Later, Russians Regard Stalin Positively March 4, 2006 (Angus Reid Global Scan) – Many adults in Russia think the tenure of one of the most notorious Soviet leaders was beneficial, according to a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation. 47 per cent of respondents believe Josef Stalin played a positive role in the country’s history. Stalin was the second leader of the Soviet Union, taking over after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924. Stalin was responsible for a series of repressive campaigns—known as the Great Purge—during the 1930s. During his tenure, Stalin eliminated all possible political opposition...

Venezuela has received the first three of at least 10 military helicopters purchased from Russia. Military officials say the three MI-17 helicopters arrived Tuesday in Caracas. Venezuela bought the helicopters as part of a $120 million deal signed last March. Caracas also agreed last year to buy 100,000 Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles. U.S. officials have criticized the deals, saying they could trigger an arms race, destabilizing the region. MI-17s can be used in an assault role or as a transport craft. Venezuelan military officials say the helicopters will be used to patrol the border with neighboring Colombia. The remaining helicopters...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spent over $2.17 billion in 2005 to acquire Russian assault rifles and helicopters, Spanish transport aircraft and missile-capable corvettes, and Brazilian turboprop light attack aircraft. In January 2006, however, the U.S. State Department denied Spain and Brazil permission to sell Venezuela military transport and light attack aircraft containing U.S.-owned engine and avionics technology. The U.S. government’s action killed deals worth over $600 million to Spanish firm CASA-EADS and Brazil’s Embraer. It also created a major hindrance, albeit not an insurmountable obstacle, for the president’s military expansion plans. The Bolivarian revolution’s military weapons buying spree will continue...