US Servicemen To Take Part in Russia's Largest Victory Parade Ever

English.Pravda.ru ^ | March 3, 2010

[ETL]

From the prestigious conservative website, Heritage.org...

Putin's Poison?
by Peter Brookes, November 27, 2006
The death of former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, last week from radioactive Polonium-210 poisoning is the latest in a series of politically motivated attacks on the outspoken opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed112706a.cfm
_____________________________________________________

Blowing up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror
by Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Felshtinsky, Geoffrey Andrews and Co (Translator)

Synopsis: Blowing Up Russia contains the allegations of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko against his former spymasters in Moscow which led to his being murdered in London in November 2006. In the book he and historian Yuri Felshtinsky detail how since 1999 the Russian secret service has been hatching a plot to return to the terror that was the hallmark of the KGB. Vividly written and based on Litvinenko's 20 years of insider knowledge of Russian spy campaigns, Blowing Up Russia describes how the successor of the KGB fabricated terrorist attacks and launched a war. Writing about Litvinenko, the surviving co-author recounts how the banning of the book in Russia led to three earlier deaths.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Blowing-up-Russia/Alexander-Litvinenko/e/9781594032011
_____________________________________________________

Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian security agent fighting for his life in a UK hospital after allegedly being poisoned, has been a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin since before he became president in 2000.

Mr Litvinenko is thought to have been close to journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another opponent of the Kremlin who was shot dead last month, and said recently he was investigating her murder. It was after being handed documents apparently relating to the case that he was taken ill more than two weeks ago.

But he is perhaps best known for a book in which he alleges that agents co-ordinated the 1999 apartment block bombings in Russia that killed more than 300 people. He now appears to have fallen victim to the kind of plots which he wrote about.

Arrest

Mr Litvinenko, 43, first became a security agent under the Soviet-era KGB, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in its later incarnations.

He is reported to have fallen out with Vladimir Putin, then head of the security service, in the late 1990s, after failing in attempts to crack down on corruption within the organisation. In 1998, he first came to prominence by exposing an alleged plot to assassinate the then powerful tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who himself now lives in self-imposed exile in the UK. He was subsequently arrested on charges of abusing his office and spent nine months in a remand centre before being acquitted.

In 1999 he wrote Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within, in which he accused the current Russian security service, the FSB, of carrying out several apartment house bombings in 1999 that killed more than 300 people. The attacks, which Moscow blamed on Chechen rebels, helped swing public opinion behind Russia's second war in the breakaway republic.

Petrol bombs

Complaining of persecution, in 2000 Mr Litvinenko fled to the UK where he sought, and was granted, asylum. But after settling in an unnamed London suburb, the former spy continued to behave as if on the run, constantly changing his contact details. The Times newspaper reported that over the summer someone tried to push a pram loaded with petrol bombs at his front door. Appearing alongside high-profile opponents of President Putin, he has continued to make allegations about his former bosses. Perhaps most notably, he alleged that al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri was trained by the FSB in Dagestan in the years before 9/11.

http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/litvinenko.html

[End Times Sentinel]

One would have to be a complete fool to believe everything Russia says in terms of terrorism there.

You don't have to believe everything they say to know about the 2004 airliner bombings, that horrific Beslan massacre, the Moscow Metro bombing, the Moscow theater hostage situation, and who knows how many other terrorist attacks I've forgotten.

The Chechens are animals.

[ETL]

It's one of the few countries capable of the outright brutality it will take to scour the muzzies from the earth if it comes down to it.

They are in it together with the radical muslims in seeking our destruction. They have supported every one of our enemies for decades, including Saddam Hussein. They are also currently building up Hugo Chavez and the Castro brothers, and working more closely than ever with the ChiComs to build (in their own words) an "new international order". They have conducted 3 sets of joint war games with the ChiComs in the past 5 years. Putin has expressed openly that he longs for the 'good old days' of the Soviet Union

[ETL]

You don't have to believe everything they say to know about the 2004 airliner bombings, that horrific Beslan massacre, the Moscow Metro bombing, the Moscow theater hostage situation, and who knows how many other terrorist attacks I've forgotten.

From AP via FoxNews.com...

Last Living Beslan School Attacker Sentenced to Life in Prison
May 28, 2006

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia — AP
A southern Russian court on Friday sentenced the sole surviving Beslan school attacker to life in prison, capping a yearlong trial that survivors and victims' relatives say has left the most essential questions about the tragedy unanswered.

They demand to know just who bore the most responsibility: Nur-Pashi Kulayev and his 31 fellow militants, or the officials whose negligence or even alleged complicity allowed them to seize hundreds of children and parents on the first day of school in September 2004.

Countrywatch: Russia

"I did not go to court to become convinced of Kulayev's guilt, but to reconstruct all the circumstances of the terrorist attack and find the truth," said Aneta Gadiyeva, whose daughter was killed. "But I did not learn anything new and did not get any answers." ..."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197093,00.html

[ETL]

You don't have to believe everything they say to know about the 2004 airliner bombings, that horrific Beslan massacre, the Moscow Metro bombing, the Moscow theater hostage situation, and who knows how many other terrorist attacks I've forgotten.

Russian Terror Victims Ask for Truth

In 1999, a series of apartment bombings shook Russia and propelled the country headlong into the Second Chechen War. Nearly nine years after the attacks, which claimed 292 lives, many Russians remain unconvinced by the official version of events, which holds that Chechen separatists were responsible.

Two sisters, who lost their mother in the attack, have written an open letter to President Dmitri Medvedev, urging him to mount a fully open, independent investigation. The sisters, Tatyana and Alyona Morozov, currently reside in Missouri. Their appeal (below) was published in the Wall Street Journal newspaper on May 30th.

–

Dear President Medvedev

In three coordinated bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999, 292 people were murdered, including our mother Lyubov Morozova. We are writing this open letter to call on you, Dmitry Anatolyevich, to order an independent, open and full investigation of these attacks.

Although these crimes were blamed on Chechen terrorists and used to justify the resumption of a full-scale war against Chechnya later that month, there are numerous indications that Russian security services may have been involved. There is also clear evidence of a cover-up by the authorities. We do not consider this case solved.

Let us remind you of some of the facts:

* On September 23, 1999, police arrested three Federal Security Service (FSB) agents who had planted a detonator and RDX – the same explosive used in the earlier bombings – in the basement of a residential building in the city of Ryazan. The FSB explained the agent’s activities as a “training exercise,” claiming the sacks of explosives actually contained only sugar. The investigation was dropped and all evidence classified “top secret.”

* At about the same time, a Russian soldier discovered RDX in sacks labeled as “sugar” at his army base near Ryazan. The incident was never investigated and the evidence classified.

* On September 13, 1999, the Speaker of the Duma, Gennady Seleznev, announced that an apartment house in Volgodonsk had been blown up – three days before the attack actually occurred.

* Mark Blumenfeld, the property manager of our house on Guryanova Street in Moscow that was blown up, told our lawyer and several journalists that FSB agents had “talked him into” changing his testimony. The agents showed him a photo of Achemez Gochiyayev, a Chechen he had never seen before, and under pressure he “identified” him as the man who had rented storage space in the basement.

* The composite sketch based on Mr. Blumenfeld’s initial description of what the real suspect looked like disappeared from the police file and was replaced with the photograph of Mr. Gochiyaev. Meanwhile, our attorney Mikhail Trepashkin, himself a former KGB agent, told reporters that he had recognized FSB agent Vladimir Romanovich from the police sketch. Romanovich was subsequently killed in Cyprus in a hit and run incident that was never solved.

* In November 2003, on the eve of the trial of two Chechens later convicted for transporting the explosives used in the Moscow bombings, Mr. Trepashkin was arrested after a gun had been planted in his car. This prevented him from submitting Mr. Blumenfeld’s statement to court that the FSB agents had pressured him to give false evidence. The trial of the two Chechens was not convincing to us or the world as it was held behind closed doors and human rights groups noted numerous violations of due process. Mr. Blumenfeld’s statement and the replacement of the police sketch with the photo of Mr. Gochiyayev was never reviewed by a Russian court.

* Four people investigating the FSB’s possible involvement in the bombings were assassinated. Duma Deputy Sergei Yushenkov was shot dead in Moscow in April 2003 and his colleague Yuri Schekochihin died of apparent poisoning three months later. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in October 2006 in her Moscow apartment block and a month later, former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko died of poisoning in London.

Many Russians have come to the conclusion that the bombings may have been the work of Russian security services. As for our family, our initial trust in the official version of a “Chechen trail” is long gone. We have come to believe that our mother and neighbors were sacrificed for a political end: To justify the war in Chechnya and help Vladimir Putin become president the following year. Only an objective investigation could make us change this view.

Mr. President, we are writing this open letter because we would like to believe that your ascent to the presidency will end this dark period in Russian history. You were not involved.

We realize that you owe the previous regime a debt of loyalty and gratitude. But the powers of the state were entrusted to you not to protect possible murderers. You are now in control of Russia and your position imposes a higher responsibility. Before history, the people and the memory of innocent victims, you have an obligation to find and tell the truth about these crimes.

Related articles:

* A Record Harvest of Spies

* An Open Letter to the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia

* Opposition Activist Revealed as FSB Agent

* Beslan Rights Group Charged With Extremism

* Russian Immigration Agency Knew Nothing About Morar’s Deportation

* Investigative Journalist Barred From Returning to Moscow

* Kasparov on His FSB Interrogation

Source: Russian Terror Victims Ask for Truth:
http://www.theotherrussia.org/2008/05/31/russian-terror-victims-ask-for-truth/

[ETL]

Symposium: To Kill a Russian Journalist
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 17, 2006

The murder of internationally renowned Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in early October 2006 was yet another troubling sign of Russia’s retreat into its totalitarian past. Today Frontpage Symposium has gathered a distinguished panel of experts to discuss why Anna Politkovskaya was killed and what the tragic loss of her life symbolizes about the direction in which Vladimir Putin’s Russia is heading.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=BDBFAEF5-5295-400F-807B-83D20FFA285C
_____________________________________________________

'PUTIN'S RUSSIA' by Anna Politkovskaya:
http://www.annapolitkovskaya.com/

[End Times Sentinel]

They are in it together with the radical muslims in seeking our destruction.

It's not in their interests to destroy us. It IS in their interests to create areas of destabilization and buffer zones of those unfriendly towards the West.

[ETL]

Let the troops march and have a few beers together.

Here you go! Perhaps you can blow it up and hang it on your wall.

[End Times Sentinel]

I have no idea what you're trying to prove here. I see a couple articles from the Russian equivalent of our Truthers and an article about a journalist who was murdered, almost certainly by Putin's thugs. Everyone knows Putin and Medvedev are scum, which is why I said I don't particularly like the Russians.

The Chechens admit they carried out these terror attacks.

[ETL]

From the Wall Street Journal Europe

Dear President Medvedev
By TATYANA MOROZOV and ALYONA MOROZOV
May 30, 2008

"In three coordinated bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999, 292 people were murdered, including our mother Lyubov Morozova. We are writing this open letter to call on you, Dmitry Anatolyevich, to order an independent, open and full investigation of these attacks."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121209647875130625.html

[ETL]

I have no idea what you're trying to prove here. I see a couple articles from the Russian equivalent of our Truthers and an article about a journalist who was murdered

It is beyond the realm of possibility that the U.S. would ever commit such an act against their own innocent population. However, when it comes to Russia and their KGB/FSB, just about anything is possible. They have a long history of terrorism and murder. Scores of reporters critical of Putin have been mysteriously murdered in Russia. They attempted to murder the president of the Ukraine by poisoning him. They murdered by poisoning Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent who was 'spilling the beans' on what they were up to (staging and/or contributing to terror attacks in order to later justify a brutal 'retaliation' vs the opposition groups).

You are naive in the extreme if you believe the Russians aren't capable of this. I wouldn't be surprised if they initiated the Bush-911 conspiracy theories in order to draw attention away from themselves and make similar theories regarding them seem just as 'off the wall' and inconceivable, at least in the minds of those who know zilch about the history of the KGB (most people, unfortunately).

[fatima]

Great story.

[ETL]

and an article about a journalist who was murdered

List of journalists killed in Russia...

1992

* Sergey Bogdanovsky, correspondent of TV “Ostankino”, killed in Moscow[12]
______________________________

1993

* Rory Peck, ARD Germany operator, killed in Moscow on 3 October

* Ivan Scopan, TF-1 France operator, killed in Moscow on 3 October

* Igor Belozerov, 4th Channel Ostankino, killed in Moscow on 3 October

* Sergey Krasilnikov, editor of TV “Ostankino”, killed in Moscow on 3 October

* Vladimir Drobyshev, “People and nature” journal, killed in Moscow on 3 October

* Alexander Sidelnikov, freelance journalist from Saint Petersburg, killed in Moscow on 4 October

* Alexander Smirnov, Yoshkar-Ola based Youth Courier newspaper, killed in Moscow on 4 October

* Elena Tkacheva, proof-reader for Kuban Courier newspaper, killed in Krasnodar on 29 November as a result of a bomb exploding in the newspapers building

* Marina Iskanderova, journalist of a local TV station, murdered in her apartment in Nadym in December

* Dmitry Krikoryants, correspondent for Express Chronicle journal, murdered in his own apartment in Chechnya on 14 or 15 April.[13]
______________________________

1995

* Vladislav Listyev, head of the ORT TV Channel, killed in Moscow on March 1;
______________________________

2000

* Vladimir Yatsina, February 20, 2000. A correspondent for ITAR-TASS, he was kidnapped and later killed by a group of Wahhabis in Chechnya [14]

* Aleksandr Yefremov, May 12, 2000, Chechnya. A photojournalist of the western Siberian newspaper Nashe Vremya was killed in Chechnya when rebels blew up a military jeep in which he was riding. On previous assignments, Yefremov had won acclaim for his news photographs from the war-torn region.[citation needed]

* Igor Domnikov, from Novaya Gazeta, July 16, 2000, Moscow. Unknown assassin hit him repeatedly on the head with a hammer in the entryway of his apartment building in Moscow. The killer was never found. It is believed that the assailant mistook Domnikov for a Novaya Gazeta reporter Oleg Sultanov who received threats from the FSB for his reporting on corruption in the Russian oil industry.[6]

* Sergey Novikov, Radio Vesna, July 26, 2000, Smolensk. He was shot and killed in the stairwell of his apartment building. He often criticized the government of Smolensk Region.[citation needed]

* Iskandar Khatloni, Radio Free Europe, September 21, 2000, Moscow. He was killed at night with axe in his Moscow apartment by an unknown assailant. The motive of the murder is unknown, but Khatloni work on stories about the human-rights abuses in Chechnya.[15]

* Sergey Ivanov, Lada-TV, October 3, 2000, Togliatti. He was shot five times in the head and chest in front of his apartment building. He was director of Lada-TV, the largest independent television company in Togliatti, which was an important player on the local political scene.[16]

* Adam Tepsurgayev, Reuters, November 21, 2000, Chechnya. A Chechen cameraman, he was shot at a neighbor’s house in the village of Alkhan-Kala. He produced most of Reuters’ footage from Chechnya in 2000, including shots of Chechen rebel Shamil Basayev having his foot amputated.[citation needed]
______________________________

2001

* Eduard Markevich, 29, editor and publisher of local newspaper Novy Reft in Sverdlovsk Region, was found dead (shot in the back) on September 18. He often criticized local officials and had received threatening telephone phone calls prior to the murder. [17]
______________________________

2002

* Natalia Skryl, the Nashe Vremya newspaper, Taganrog town;

* Konstantin Pogodin, the Novoye Delo newspaper, Nizhni Novgorod city;

* Valeri Batuev, Moscow News newspaper, Moscow;

* Sergei Kalinovski, the Moskovskiy Komsomolets, Smolensk;

* Vitali Sakhn-Val’da, photojournalist, Kursk town;

* Leonid Shevchenko, the Pervoye Chteniye newspaper, Volgograd;

* Valeri Ivanov, the chief editor for the Tol’yattinskoye Obozrenie newspaper, the Samara region;

* Sergei Zhabin,the press service of the governor of the Moscow region;

* Nikolai Vasiliev, Cheboksary city, Chuvashia;

* Leonid Kuznetsov, the Mescherskaya Nov’ newspaper, the Ryazan region;

* Paavo Voutilainen, a former main editor of the Kareliya magazine, Kareliya;

* Roddy Scott, the Frontline-TV TV Company, from Great Britain.

* Alexandr Plotnikov, the Gostiny Dvor newspaper, Tyumen city;

* Oleg Sedinko, the founder of the Novaya Volna TV and Radio Company, Vladivostok city;

* Nikolai Razmolodin, the general director of the Europroject TV and Radio Company, Ulyanovsk town;

* Igor Salikov, the chief of the Department of information safety of the Moskovskiy Komsomolets newspaper in Penza;

* Leonid Plotnikov, the publishing house “Periodicals of the Mari-El”, Yoshkar-Ola.[18]
______________________________

2003

* Aleksei Sidorov, Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye, October 9, 2003, Togliatti. He was the second editor-in-chief of local newspaper, “Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye” to be shot to death. His predecessor, Valery Ivanov, was shot in April 2002. The newspaper was known for reporting on organized crime and corruption in the industrial city of Togliatti.[citation needed]

* Yuri Shchekochikhin, Novaya Gazeta, July 3, 2003, Moscow. Deputy editor of the Novaya Gazeta, he died just a few days before his scheduled trip to USA to discuss the results of his journalist investigation with FBI officials. He investigated “Three Whales Corruption Scandal” that involved high-ranking FSB officials. Shchekochikhin died from an “acute allergic reaction”. There are many speculations about cause of his death.

* Dmitry Shvets, TV-21 Northwestern Broadcasting, April 18, 2003, Murmansk. He was deputy director of the independent television station TV-21 Northwestern Broadcasting. He was shot dead outside his station offices. Shvets’ colleagues said their station had received multiple threats for its reporting on influential local politicians.[citation needed]
______________________________

2004

* Yefim Sukhanov, ATK-Media, Archangelsk;

* Farit Urazbayev, cameraman, Vladivostok TV/Radio Company, city of Vladivostok;

* Adlan Khassanov, Reuters reporter, killed in Grozny;

* Shangysh Mondush, correspondent for newspaper Khemchiktin Syldyzy, Tuva Republic;

* Paul Klebnikov, editor of Russian version of Forbes magazine, Moscow;

* Payl Peloyan, editor of Armyansky Pereulok magazine, Moscow;

* Zoya Ivanova, BGTRK broadcaster, Republic of Buryatia;

* Vladimir Pritchin, editor-in-chief of North Baikal TV/Radio Company, Republic of Buryatia;

* Ian Travinsky, Saint Petersburg, killed in Irkutsk;[19]
______________________________

2005

* Pavel Makeyev, reporter for TNT-Pulse Company, Rostov-on-Don;

* Magomedzaghid Varisov, Makhachkala;

* Alexander Pitersky, Baltika Radio reporter, Saint Petersburg;

* Vladimir Pashutin, newspaper Smolensky Literator, Smolensk;

* Tamirlan Kazikhanov, press service head, Anti-Terrorist Center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs’s Main Department for the Southern Federal District, Nalchik;

* Kira Lezhneva, reporter, newspaper “Kamensky Worker”, Sverdlovsk Region.[20]
______________________________

2006

* Vadim Kuznetsov, editor-in-chief of journal “World and home. Saint Petersburg”, killed in Saint Petersburg

* Vaghif Kochetkov, newspaper Trud (Labor), killed in Tula

* Ilya Zimin, worked for NTV Russia television channel, killed in Moscow by an acquaintance

* Vyacheslav Akatov, special reporter, “Business Moscow” TV show, killed in Moscow Region

* Anton Kretenchuk, cameraman, 38th TV Channel, killed in Rostov-on-Don

* Yevgeny Gerasimenko, newspaper “Saratovsky Rasklad”, Saratov

* Vlad Kidanov, freelance journalist, Cheboksary

* Alexander Petrov, editor-in-chief, “Right for Choice” magazine, killed near Omsk - in Altai Republic

* Vyacheslav Plotnikov, reporter, 41st TV Channel, Voronezh

* Anna Politkovskaya, observer, newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Moscow, shot in her apartment building’s elevator;[21][22][23][24]

* Anatoly Voronin, business chief of ITAR-TASS; Moscow, stabbed to death in his home
______________________________

2007

* Konstantin Brovko, journalist of TV company “Gubernia”, killed in Khabarovsk

* Ivan Safronov, Military columninst of newspaper “Kommersant”. Died in Moscow on March 2 - cause of death disputed.[25][26]
______________________________

2008

* Ilyas Shurpayev, Dagestani journalist responsible for news coverage of Northern Caucasus on Channel One, was strangled with a belt by the robbers in Moscow.[27][28]

* Gaji Abashilov, chief of Dagestan outlet of VGTRK, shot in his car.

* Magomed Yevloyev, owner of Ingushetiya.ru, shot while in custody of Ingush police officers.[29][30][31].

* Abdulla Alishayev, Dagestani journalist fatally wounded by unknown assailants.[32]
______________________________

2009

* Anastasia Baburova (Novaya Gazeta)[33]. She was with human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, who reportedly was the target of the assasin.[34]

* Yevgeny Lukinov, a Channel One reporter died in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia on 30 May, 2009. “The journalist died on Saturday morning in a private house in Tskhinvali,” Channel One said. According to a spokeswoman the death was an accident.[35]

References at the website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia

[ETL]

Russia and Islam are not Separate:
Why Russia backs Al-Qaeda

By Konstantin Preobrazhensky

Americans generally believe that Russia is afraid of Islamic terrorism as much as the U.S.A. They are reminded of the war in Chechnya, the hostage crisis at the Beslan School in 2004 and at the Moscow Theater in 2002, and of the apartment house blasts in Moscow in 1999, where over 200 people were killed. It is clear that Russians are also targets of terrorism today.

But in all these events, the participation of the FSB, Federal Security Service, inheritor to the KGB, is also clear. Their involvement in the Moscow blasts has been proven by lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin, a former FSB Colonel. For this he was illegally imprisoned, and is now suffering torture and deprivation of medical assistance, from which he is not likely to survive.

A key distinction between Russian and American attitudes towards Islamic terrorism is that while for America terrorism is largely seen as an exterior menace, Russia uses terrorism as an object as a tool of the state for manipulation in and outside the home country. Islamic terrorism is only part of the world of terrorism. Long before Islamic terrorism became a global threat, the KGB had used terrorism to facilitate the victory of world Communism.

This leads to the logical connection between Russian and Islamic terrorism. The late Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned in London in November, 2006, told me that his former FSB colleagues had trained famous Al-Qaeda terrorists Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Juma Namangoniy during the 1980s and 1990s. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, one of the world's most wanted terrorists, has been responsible for the murder of U.S. nationals outside the United States. Before his death, Juma Namangoniy (Jumabai Hojiyev), a native of Soviet Uzbekistan, was a right-hand man of Osama bin Laden in charge of the Taliban's northern front in Afghanistan.

In 1996, Alexander Litvinenko was responsible for securing the secrecy of Al-Zawahiri's arrival in Russia, who was trained by FSB instructors in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, in 1996-1997.

At that time, Litvinenko was the Head of the Subdivision for Internationally Wanted Terrorists of the First Department of the Operative-Inquiry Directorate of the FSB Anti-Terrorist Department. He was ordered to undertake the delicate mission of securing Al-Zawahiri from unintentional disclosure by the Russian police. Though Al-Zawahiri had been brought to Russia by the FSB using a false passport, it was still possible for the police to learn about his arrival and report to Moscow for verification. Such a process could disclose Al-Zawahiri as an FSB collaborator.

In order to prevent this, Litvinenko visited a group of the highly placed police officers to notify them in advance. "If you get information about some suspicious Arabs arriving in the Caucasus, please report it to me before informing your leadership", he told them.

Juma Namangoniy was once a student of the Saboteur Training Center of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB in 1989-91. The school was notorious for the international terrorists who matriculated from it. It now belongs to the FSB, and since only KGB staff officers were allowed to study there, Juma Namangoniy's presence clearly suggests that he was much more than a civil collaborator.

Mohammed Atta, the pilot of the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague, Czech Republic, five months before the attack. But Iraqi intelligence was just a client of Russia's intelligence service. It brings a new understanding to the fact that President Putin was the first foreign President to call President Bush on 9/11. One may conjecture that he knew in advance what was to happen.

Muslim Name and Communist Heart

Tartars have always been patriotic to Russia. Their independent kingdom was conquered by Russia in the 16th century, but their gentry were allowed to join the Russian upper class and enjoy all its privileges. Even today, many Russian families of noble origin have Tartar origins. Russia has a half-millennium of experience in turning conquered Muslim nations into obedient citizens by bribing their elite.

There are many Soviet Muslims, therefore, who seem to face no conflict of spirit. One can be a Muslim in name only, whose heart belongs to Communism. There have been a lot of such people among Russian Muslims, especially among the Tartars. The Soviet Union has typically preferred to appoint them as ambassadors to Muslim countries. Their Muslim names give them a pass to the local society, but their Communist hearts order them to serve world Communism and not the world of Islam.

In the Soviet period, the highest leadership of the Muslim republics like Uzbekistan were unofficially allowed to practice Islam under the guise of folk rites, even though their Russian colleagues were severely reprimanded for participating in such Christian "rites" as Christmas or Easter. Unlike today, Soviet cartoonists were able to mock Islam as they mocked all other religions and it didn't bring any special reaction.

Muslims of the Uzbek and other Central Asian republics' elite joined the KGB intelligence in order to spy on fellow Muslim countries. In the KGB, I have met a lot of such quasi-Muslim officers.

Russia Grows Muslim

Putin continues the traditional Russian policy of giving privileges to the Muslim elite. Today's Russian Minister of Healthcare, Mikhail Zurabov, is a Chechen. His political agenda includes the total destruction of the Russian healthcare system, looking like revenge for the war in Chechnya. Putin shows no concern over that.

Strategically Russia is surrendering to the Muslim world. The Russian population is declining rapidly, being undermined by 70 years of Communist experiment and the cold indifference of post-communist rulers. Annually, Russia is losing 900 thousand people who are being replaced by Muslims from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Islam is now the second-largest religion in Russia, where it may total up to 28 million adherents. Because of this, Russia was able to join the Organization of the Islamic Conference in 2003.

Russia's great qualitative population change represents both a departure from the past and a strengthening link with it. The synergies between the history of Russia's national policies of terrorism and the radical Islamic terrorism that it is spreading around the world are natural partners that may severely impact on America's own future.

_________________

Konstantin Preobrazhensky, a former Lt. Colonel in the KGB who defected to the United States in 1993, is an intelligence expert and specialist on Japan, about which he has written six books. His newest book Russian-American, A New KGB Asset will be published in late 2007. This article was first published by Gerard Group International, Intel Analyses, 31 August 2007.

http://cicentre.com/Documents/russia_islam_not_separate.html

[ETL]

Yushchenko: Russia blocking poisoning probe
By Bonnie Malkin and agencies, September 12, 2007

Mr Yushchenko before and after the poisoning

"Mr Yushchenko, a pro-European politician who wanted to bring his country out of Russia's shadow, fell seriously ill on September 6, 2004 as he was competing in presidential elections against a pro-Moscow candidate, Viktor Yanukovich, now prime minister.

After months of tests in an Austrian clinic, it was determined that he had ingested a massive amount of the poison dioxin.

Although he survived, his face was left bloated and pockmarked, and he has had to undergo regular treatment to rid his body of the toxin.

In an interview with Le Figaro he said he believed the dioxin used to disfigure him was made in a Russian lab.

Mr Yushchenko did not directly accuse the Russian government of being behind his poisoning, but he did say he had 'practically put all the pieces together' and the attempt against him 'was not a private action'. ..."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1562838/Yushchenko-Russia-blocking-poisoning-probe.html
_____________________________________________________

"Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (born February 23, 1954) is the third and current President of Ukraine". He took office on January 23, 2005.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko
_______________________________________________________

(Ukraine) Hunt starts for Yushchenko's poisoner:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/1478922/Hunt-starts-for-Yushchenko%27s-poisoner.html

[ETL]

"the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" -Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the collapse of the Soviet Union...
"World democratic opinion has yet to realize the alarming implications of President Vladimir Putin's State of the Union speech on April 25, 2005, in which he said that the collapse of the Soviet Union represented the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'
http://www.hooverdigest.org/053/beichman.html

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"'The Black Book of Communism,'; a scholarly accounting of communism’s crimes, counts about 94 million murdered by the supposed champions of the common man (20 million for the Soviets alone), and some say that number is too low."

Forgetting the Evils of Communism: The amnesia bites a little deeper
By Jonah Goldberg, August 2008:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmY0MjI1MDgyYjg1M2UwNDMzMTk2Mjk5YTk0ZTdlMWE=

[flash2368]

I don’t know what your problem is but my problem is that at the collapse of the Soviet Union we had an opportunity that had been fought for, for over 70 years at the expense of billions if not trillions of dollars. Idiots in our government totally botched that opportunity and as a result we ended up with the situation we have today with Russia and a man like Putin running it. It could have been different except for what was in my humble opinion and the opinion of many others, foreign policy toward the emerging Russia that was formulated by outright total and complete incompetent morons. The stupidity has not abated since they obviously know nothing about the insane paranoia of the Russians and how they would react toward missile systems in Eastern Europe. My guess is they knew exactly how they would respond and pushed the decision anyway to purposely cause more confrontation.

Putin may long for the good ‘ol days of the Soviet Union, but there are more than a few idiots here in America that long for the good ‘ol days of the cold war.

Fact is we COULD have had a friend and ally in Russia after the collapse but the wrong people obviously were in charge of policy and they had their heads stuck where the sun don’t shine.
I hope you were not one of them.

[blau993]

I assume Obama’s uncle — the one who participated in the liberation of Auschwitz — will be marching.

[dinoparty]

That’s a whole other topic.

The topic of this thread is whether it is appropriate to march US troops in a victory parade under the banners of a smiling Joseph Stalin. The Soviets were strange (and unfortunately necessary) bedfellows, nothing more.

[flash2368]

Yes, but it goes to the fact that we had a point in time when there would have been the possibility to have Russia as an ally and it was totally botched. We might have not been faced with troops marching under a picture of Joseph Stalin.

It was a monumental screw-up of a once in a lifetime opportunity.