Dec. 12, 2006: Russia Updated

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Russian regime is accused of intimidating British interests -- Ambassador suffers months of harassment and BBC service in Moscow mysteriously goes off the air after the Litvinenko murder, Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor, and Tony Halpin in Moscow, Dec. 9, 06

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Is that connected in any way to the Yukos affair?




Echoes of Stalin mean that Russia is still a gamble, James Harding, Business Editor's Commentary

business.timesonline.co.uk/
article/0,,630-2499996,00.html

[....] President Vladimir Putin, too, is in the business of nation-building. While Russia has abandoned the failed communist model, there are signs that President Putin appreciates the Soviet policy of self-reliance. Russia’s treatment of Royal Dutch Shell suggests that Mr Putin operates an updated version of Stalin’s Russia First policy: it could be dubbed Capitalism in one Country.

Free market isolationism is a nonsensical hybrid. Shell’s decision to bow to pressure from the Kremlin and cede control of the Sakhalin-2 project is a landmark, but backward step in the development of the Russian economy. [....]

Search: Putinization , Muscovite capitalism , 2008 , chairman’s office at Gazprom


Updates: Radiation find in British embassy -- Small traces of a radioactive substance have been found at the British embassy in Moscow following a precautionary check, the UK Foreign Office has said.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6215168.stm

The radioactive substance used to kill former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko has been traced back to the British embassy in Moscow. The "security" services MI5 and MI6 use the diplomatic service as a front, taking advantage of diplomatic immunity and "diplomatic bags" which can be entire aircraft and other vehicles. The news media is also routinely used as a front, with spies and agents posing as journalists to disseminate propaganda, and using press passes to travel and gain privileged access. [....]

When asked what kind of people would be targeting him, he said: "People linked with some clandestine organisations, not directly under control of Russian establishment but from Russia." [....]

Russian regime is accused of intimidating British interests
Ambassador suffers months of harassment and BBC service in Moscow mysteriously goes off the air after the Litvinenko murder , Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor, and Tony Halpin in Moscow. The Times December 09, 2006. Posted on 12/08/2006 3:49:35 PM PST by MadIvan


www.timesonline.co.uk/global

http://www.freerepublic.com/
focus/f-news/1750701/posts?page=11

The Russian authorities yesterday stood accused of orchestrating a campaign of intimidation against British interests in Moscow, where the ambassador has been harassed and the BBC Russian Service mysteriously taken off air.

... police inquiry into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko ... other serious diplomatic disputes.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) ... the treatment of Tony Brenton, the British Ambassador in Moscow.

... target of intimidation ... Nashi, a right-wing youth movement connected to the Kremlin. [....]

A former FSB director said he was certain that Litvinenko had been murdered by people determined to damage Mr Putin. Sergei Stepashin, now chairman of Russia’s Audit Chamber, said: “Those who wanted to tarnish the current Russian authorities, and primarily the President, killed Litvinenko.”

Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the FSB, dismissed as “complete nonsense” allegations that Russian forces had used polonium-210 against separatist fighters in Chechnya. Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen envoy in London, claimed that he had seen Litvinenko’s symptoms among people in Chechnya. [....]

Comments below that article:

Very subtle change here...it's not the Russian government, but the Russian "regime".
5 posted on 12/08/2006 4:19:12 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez

www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1750701/posts?page=5#5

The word "regime" (occasionally spelled "régime", particularly in older texts) refers to any system of control, or more specifically a system of government. It is frequently used to describe a government headed by a specific person ("the Saddam regime", or "the Salazar regime") or based on a particular ideology ("a communist" regime", "a fascist regime", or "a military regime"). ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regime

A member of the Russian Service said that staff suspected that the broadcasts were taken off air to stop Muscovites hearing allegations that Russian security services were linked to the Litvinenko killing. The staff member added that the 40 Russian journalists working for the BBC in Moscow were fearful for their safety if the Litvinenko story continued to dominate the headlines.

What would happen if Russian government media established in London were broadcasting allegations that British security services were responsible for bombings in Russia?

24 posted on 12/09/2006 6:16:03 AM PST by A. Pole ("Truth at first is ridiculed, then it is violently opposed and then it is accepted as self evident.")

www.freerepublic.com/focus/
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