Exclusive: Murdered ex-KGB officer was working for British security

company

Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Monday December 11, 2006
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Continued coverage of the Litvinenko Murder

Alexander Litvinenko, the ex-FSB officer who was recently murdered in

London, was working for a British security firm at the time of his
death, two well placed British sources who wish to remain unidentified
tell RAW STORY.

One of the 12 to 24 polonium contamination sites in the Piccadilly area

of London identified by British authorities was the office of the
security and risk management company Erinys International Ltd.

Erinys has been a player in international relations since it was

founded in 2002 by Sean Cleary, a South African Apartheid-era official
with ties to Angolan right wing extremist Jonas Savimbi, and Jonathan
Garratt, a former British Guards officer. Cleary left the firm in
October 2003. Garratt, for his part, has strong ties to Ahmed Chalabi,
the notorious source of Iraq pre-war WMD fabrications, and managed to
land Erinys an $86 million dollar contract to guard Iraqi oil pipelines
after US-led forces began war with Iraq.

Two separate British sources who, given the security risk, asked to not
be identified in any specific way, have confirmed that Litvinenko was
working on contract for Erinys. Given the focal point of the company,
Litvinenko's employment has proven to be an interesting development.

Erinys did not return requests for comment.

Erinys and Litvinenko

"Erinys is trying to break into the Russian [security and intelligence]

market and Litvinenko was the front man introducing them to all sorts
of people" said one of the sources.

These sources further explained that the reason Litvinenko was meeting
at Erinys' offices around the time of his contamination was to broker a
deal of some sort with a Russian security startup being created by two
former FSB agents, Andrei Lugovoi and his business partner Dmitry
Kovtun.

The three men had a flurry of cross-nation meetings beginning shortly

after the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and
continuing up until Litvinenko's poisoning:

October 7: Anna Politkovskaya found shot to death in her apartment

building
October 16: The three men meet at Erinys
October 17: Lugovoi meets Litvinenko at the Itsu sushi bar, with Kovtun
and Lugovoi returning to Moscow later that evening
October 25: Kovtun and Lugovoi return to London
October 28: The two men return to Moscow
October 31: Kovtun and Lugovoi return and stay at the Millennium hotel
November 1: Litvinenko meets with Maria Scaramella at Itsu, then meets
Kovtun and Lugovoi at the Millennium, then becomes violently ill.
According to the two British sources, Litvinenko was making
introductions between Lugovoi and someone at Erinys. But there are
additional allegations that Litvinenko had agreed to meet with the
twosome to get information on Politkovskaya's death that one of the
former Russian FSB officers claimed to have had.

What business dealings Litvinenko may have been pursuing as a

representative of Erinys with Lugovoi and Kovtun remains unclear.
However, it may be significant that Erinys added an expert in Russian
and Caspian oil and gas geopolitics to their management team just last
April.

Caught in the middle of a 'turf war'?

A US intelligence official suggested that Litvinenko was trying to get

Erinys a security contract with one of the state-owned energy firms and
speculated that this could be a reason why the FSB might have allegedly
assassinated Litvinenko.

"Seems like at least one reason for the hit on Sasha Litvinenko has
something to do with a turf war," said this source.

Some US intelligence experts believe that Litvinenko was lured into the
meetings by Kovtun and Lugovoi on the pretext of helping Erinys extend
its interests in Russia, while others believe there was a genuine and
legitimate business relationship with no sinister motive behind the
meetings.

Still others believe that documents relating to both Politkovskaya's

death and her work in tracing the funding of pro-Moscow Chechen alleged
terrorists were passed to Litvinenko during one of these meetings by
one of the two Russians, and possibly also by a third, who has
vehemently denied charges that he was present.

Russian Assassinations Not New

One senior CIA officer recently back from Moscow asserted that
regardless of the various possible connections among the multiple
interests and activities of Litvinenko and his associates, his murder
was a state sponsored "hit" with clear indications of the FSB and
elements of SVR -- the Russian equivalent of the FBI -- as the
culprits.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the KGB split into two structures,
with the FSB taking over much of the domestic policing and intelligence
services that had been under the purview of the KGB. The second
structure created out of the KGB was its foreign intelligence service,
known as the SVR (Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki).

European journalists, including British, Polish, and Russian writers

with whom RAW STORY has been communicating, find it surprising that US
interest in the Litvinenko case is so minimal. In addition, some of
these journalists find what they call "conspiracy theories" of a "Putin
is being framed" variety rather odd, given the "sordid activities" of
the FSB under Putin.

One foreign source, who wishes to remain fully anonymous, pointed to

similar assassinations conducted by Russian FSB, SVR, and GRU (Military
Intelligence) agents "by the light of day" against high value targets.

This source specifically pointed to the assassination of Zelimkhan

Yandarbiev, a writer, poet, and prominent Chechen leader critical of
the Kremlin, who died in 2004 when a car bomb detonated while he was
hiding out in Qatar with his family.

Qatari secret service officers detained three Russian nationals in the

small hours, February 19, on suspected assassination involvement. All
the three were in Qatar on mission. One of the detainees, First
Secretary of the Russian Embassy, was promptly released due to
diplomatic immunity, and came back to Moscow, March 24.

The others were indicted, February 26, on suspected premeditated

murder, unauthorized storage of explosives, and another seven charges.
Another example of an alleged FSB assassination is eerily similar to
the way that Anna Politkovskaya was killed. Galina Starovoitova, a
member of the Liberal Democratic party serving in the Duma, the lower
body of Russia's parliament, was shot point blank in her apartment
building in 1998. She was strongly opposed to the FSB and its
leadership, including now-President Vladimir Putin, and the power of
Russian intelligence and military organizations in general within the
Russian government.

About 10,000 people paid their final respects to Galina Starovoitova.

The line was so long that her funeral was delayed so every mourner
could have a chance to pass by her casket.

The liberal member of parliament was shot to death last Friday as she
walked up the stairs to her apartment. The feisty 52-year-old
grandmother had planned to run for president in 2000.
In yet another example, Russian journalist Yuri Petrovich
Shchekochikhin, died of a mysterious illness in 2003, later linked to
thallium. He was critical of the FSB and was investigating FSB ties to
US energy companies and money laundering activities.

RAW STORY earlier reported on the allegations made by Litvinenko and

others concerning the alleged false-flag bombings in Russia during
1999. Well placed sources allege that Anna Politkovskaya was
investigating the bombings by tracking the funding channels of the pro-
Russian advocates in the Chechen leadership. The bombings were alleged
to have been orchestrated by the FSB in order to frame the Chechen
separatist movement and justify military action against them. The
investigation into the bombings, however, was stopped dead in its
tracks when yet another assassination occurred.

Sergei Yushenkov was the co-chairman of a formal committee convened to

study the Russian bombings, which he, like others, came to believe were
the handiwork of the FSB. He was shot point blank in Moscow, near his
apartment.
Sergey Yushenkov was shot several times in the chest in the latest
political assassination to rock post-Soviet Russia. The BBC's Russian
affairs analyst Stephen Dalziel says such a high-profile killing stands
out even in a country where murders of politicians and businessmen are
relatively common.
If and how the murder of Litvinenko relates to the 1999 bombings is
very much of interest to intelligence experts watching this scandal
unfold. The shady dealing of the FSB, and its alleged relationship to
foreign security firms, are something authorities are looking into as
well.

British authorities, however, have refrained from commenting on the

questions surrounding Erinys and Litvinenko's employment with the firm.

The Assassination Overlay

Nev Johnson, one of the two Foreign and Commonwealth Office press
officers with responsibility for intelligence, primarily MI6, explained
that the continuing probe makes it difficult to confirm or discuss the
issues surrounding the case.

"The ongoing investigation into the death of Mr. Litvinenko precludes

providing background details about his activities and location prior to
his death," said Johnson. "To do so might seriously compromise the
police investigation and any criminal prosecution which might be
undertaken."

What most authorities in Britain and elsewhere have told RAW STORY is
that Litvinenko's assassination involves an overlay of several possible
criminal activities, making the waters quite muddy. What those
activities are and who they involve is not elaborated on, nor are
details provided.

When asked if this was a rogue group of agents within the FSB and/or
SVR, the source scoffed at the idea. "The FSB is tightly controlled by
the Kremlin. This nonsense about a rogue group of operatives is just
that, nonsense," said the source.