The Amboy Times

The West Condemns Russia

Bad news everyone! Russia is back to it's bad old Soviet self. After about two decades of Glasnost induced hibernation, Putin and pals are back with a vengeance.

The invasion of oil-rich and democratically governed Georgia has netted the successful annexation of South Ossetia.

The Kremlin moved swiftly to tighten its grip on Georgia’s breakaway regions yesterday as South Ossetia announced that it would soon become part of Russia, which will open military bases in the province under an agreement to be signed on Tuesday.

Tarzan Kokoity, the province’s Deputy Speaker of parliament, announced that South Ossetia would be absorbed into Russia soon so that its people could live in “one united Russian state” with their ethnic kin in North Ossetia.

To make matters worse, Georgian refugees are being blocked from returning to their homes.

Russian troops remaining in Georgian territory are effectively preventing Georgians from returning to their homes, a U.N. representative said Saturday.

Melita Sunjic, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees in Georgia, said that although it was not clear if Russian soldiers were actually preventing refugees from returning, the warnings by the troops effectively block them.

"If they say 'we can't guarantee your safety,' you don't go," she told The Associated Press.

Some 2,000 refugees are at UNHCR camps in Gori, and possibly thousands of others are in the region, hoping to return to villages that are in the so-called "security zones" that Russia has claimed for itself on Georgian territory.

The clampdown is tightening in the Motherland as well..

The owner of an independent Web site critical of authorities was shot and killed Sunday by police in a volatile province in southern Russia, his colleague said.

Police arrested Ingushetiya.ru owner Magomed Yevloyev on Sunday, taking him off a plane that had just landed in Ingushetia province near Chechnya, said the site's deputy editor, Ruslan Khautiyev.

Police whisked Yevloyev away in a car and later dumped him on the road with a gunshot wound in the head, Khautiyev said. He said Yevloyev died in a hospital shortly afterward.

However if Russia continues to lapse into rogue state status, it's probably going to cost them.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Monday if elected he would push to exclude Russia from the Group of Eight conclave of major industrial nations to punish Moscow for rolling back political freedoms.

"We need a new Western approach to this revanchist Russia," McCain wrote in a Foreign Affairs magazine article outlining his views on foreign policy looking ahead to the November 2008 election.

The EU isn't too pleased either.

The European Union will seek at an emergency summit on Monday to show a united front on Russia, but differences may emerge over whether Moscow should face consequences for its actions in Georgia.

EU leaders are set to issue a tough verbal condemnation of Moscow over the conflict in breakaway South Ossetia but France, Germany and others have blocked calls from most eastern European states for a tougher stance, including possible punitive action.

"We need a strong and sensible European role to allow a return to reason and responsibility," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said of tensions between Moscow and the West.

Totten's Report From Tbilisi

Russia has it's own definition of withdraw from Georgia, and has gone as far as making threats of going 'beyond diplomacy' over Poland. Russia is also talking about exiting NATO.

Michael Totten has a close up of how things look for the Georgians.

On Monday, I visited one of the schools transformed into refugee housing in the center of Tbilisi and spoke to four women—Lia, Nana, Diana, and Maya—who had fled with their children from a cluster of small villages just outside the city of Gori. “We left the cattle,” Lia said. “We left the house. We left everything and came on foot because to stay there was impossible.” Diana’s account: “They are burning the houses. From most of the houses they are taking everything. They are stealing everything, even such things as toothbrushes and toilets. They are taking the toilets. Imagine. They are taking broken refrigerators.” And Nana: “We are so heartbroken. I don’t know what to say or even think. Our whole lives we were working to save something, and one day we lost everything. Now I have to start everything from the very beginning.” Read it all.

World renown scholar of Russian politics Edward Lucas delivers a ground breaking speech about current situation in Russia and its relations with NATO, Georgia, and the Baltic States.

Today Georgia, Tomorrow Poland?

Springtime for Putin
and Russia,
Winter for Georgia and Poland!

A top Russian general said Friday that Poland's agreement to accept a U.S. missile interceptor base exposes the ex-communist nation to attack, possibly by nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported.

The statement by Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn is the strongest threat that Russia has issued against the plans to put missile defense elements in former Soviet satellite nations.

Poland and the United States on Thursday signed a deal for Poland to accept a missile interceptor base as part of a system the United States says is aimed at blocking attacks by rogue nations. Moscow, however, feels it is aimed at Russia's missile force.

(...)

Poland has all along been guided by fears of a newly resurgent Russia, an anxiety that has intensified with Russia's offensive in Georgia. In past days, Polish leaders said that fighting justified Poland's demands that it get additional security guarantees from Washington in exchange for allowing the anti-missile base on its soil.

John Bolton: After Russia's invasion of Georgia, what now for the West?

Russia’s invasion across an internationally recognised border, its thrashing of the Georgian military, and its smug satisfaction in humbling one of its former fiefdoms represents only the visible damage.

As bad as the bloodying of Georgia is, the broader consequences are worse. The United States fiddled while Georgia burned, not even reaching the right rhetorical level in its public statements until three days after the Russian invasion began, and not, at least to date, matching its rhetoric with anything even approximating decisive action. This pattern is the very definition of a paper tiger. Sending Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice to Tbilisi is touching, but hardly reassuring; dispatching humanitarian assistance is nothing more than we would have done if Georgia had been hit by a natural rather than a man-made disaster. Read more.

Update:

Russia continues to break the truce, moves deeper into Georgia.

A Russian military convoy advanced to within 55 km (34 miles) of Tbilisi on Friday, a Reuters witness said, in the deepest incursion since conflict with Georgia erupted last week.

The advance by some 17 armored personnel carriers (APCs) and about 200 soldiers coincided with a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to secure Georgia's signature on a French-brokered peace plan to end the fighting.

Initially 10 APCs moved along the main highway from the Russian-occupied town of Gori, 25 km (15 miles) from breakaway South Ossetia, before stopping in the village of Igoeti. Several APCs headed down side roads and seven more arrived later.

The exact mission of the incursion was not clear.

It seems pretty clear to me.

(...) On Thursday, Russian troops were spotted in Gori, the Black Sea port of Poti, and the western town of Zugdidi, which lies near another breakaway region, Abkhazia.

Georgia has been calling for the Russian troops to pull back from Gori, alleging that irregular militias from over the border in the North Caucasus have moved in behind them and are looting and burning Georgian villages.

Russia Invades Georgia

On the opening day of the Olympics no less.

Russia sent forces into Georgia on Friday to repel a Georgian assault on the breakaway South Ossetia region and Georgia's pro-Western president said the two countries were at war.

South Ossetia's rebel leader Eduard Kokoity said there were "hundreds of dead civilians" in the main town Tskhinvali, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

A senior Russian military commander said parts of Russia's 58th army were approaching the rebel capital, where fighting raged between Russian-backed separatists and Georgian forces sent in on Friday to seize it. Read on.

Putin Wins, Chavez loses

Putin's victory is leaving a lot of people feeling that Russia is slipping into it's old Soviet-style government.

European election monitors said Monday that Russia's parliamentary ballot was unfair, hours after President Vladimir Putin's party swept 70 percent of the seats in the new legislature.

The victory paves the way for Putin to remain Russia's de facto leader even after he leaves office next spring. On Monday, Putin described the weekend's election as a vote of confidence in him.

"I headed the United Russia ticket and, of course, it's a sign of public trust," Putin said in televised remarks.

Not exactly.

Garry Kasparov said that Russia’s election were the "dirtiest" in the nation's history.

"There are no illusions that what is being called elections was the most unfair and dirtiest in the whole history of modern Russia," Kasparov said at a news conference, pointing at reports of massive vote violations.

"We fully realize that it's useless to seek the truth in Russian courts," he added.

Kasparov, who heads the Other Russia coalition of opposition groups, was arrested and jailed for five days for leading a protest rally in Moscow on Nov. 24. His group was not allowed to run for parliament.

 

The US isn't impressed either.

The United States on Sunday urged Russia to investigate claims of election day violations, after partial results showed President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party had won 63.6 percent of the vote.

"Early reports from Russia include allegations of election day violations. We urge Russian authorities to investigate these claims," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

The Russian opposition has vowed to challenge what it said were widespread vote violations after early official results showed Putin's United Russia Party had won a huge majority in Sunday's parliamentary polls.

In contrast, wanton anti-American socialist Hugo Chavez lost his election to become President For Life.

Humbled by his first electoral defeat ever, President Hugo Chavez said Monday he may have been too ambitious in asking voters to let him stand indefinitely for re-election and endorse a huge leap to a socialist state.

"I understand and accept that the proposal I made was quite profound and intense," he said after voters narrowly rejected the sweeping constitutional reforms by 51 percent to 49 percent.

Opposition activists were ecstatic as the results were announced shortly after midnight - with 88 percent of the vote counted, the trend was declared irreversible by elections council chief Tibisay Lucena.

Some shed tears. Others began chanting: "And now he's going away!"

Foes of the reform effort - including Roman Catholic leaders, media freedom groups, human rights groups and prominent business leaders - said it would have granted Chavez unchecked power and imperiled basic rights.

Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace that the outcome of Sunday's balloting had taught him that "Venezuelan democracy is maturing." His respect for the verdict, he asserted, proves he is a true democratic leader.

"From this moment on, let's be calm," he proposed, asking for no more street violence like the clashes that marred pre-vote protests. "There is no dictatorship here."

I'm not sure what the difference between President For Life and dictator is...perhaps Castro could explain it to us.

 

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China, Russia Spying Increased

With all the hand wringing over phone tapping, I thought this might put things in perspective.

China and Russia are spying on the United States nearly as much as they did during the Cold War, according to the top U.S. intelligence official.

Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, says in testimony prepared for a Tuesday congressional hearing that a law passed last month expanding the U.S. government's eavesdropping power is needed to protect not just against terrorists but also against more traditional potential adversaries, such as those two Cold War foes.

"China and Russia's foreign intelligence services are among the most aggressive in collecting against sensitive and protected U.S. systems, facilities and development projects, and their efforts are approaching Cold War levels," McConnell says in his testimony. "Foreign intelligence information concerning the plans, activities and intentions of foreign powers and their agents is critical to protect the nation and preserve our security."

Russian Activist Held by State-Run Mental Health Ward

What could possibly go wrong if the government controlled every aspect of your health? Let's ask Larisa Arap...

A Russian opposition activist told Reuters on Tuesday from inside a psychiatric hospital that she was being held there against her will because she had blown the whistle on abuse in mental health care.    

Larisa Arap of the anti-Kremlin group United Civil Front and her colleagues say she is a victim of a local vendetta by healthcare workers after she gave an account to a newspaper alleging patients at another psychiatric unit in the same region were beaten and raped.

 

The full details of the case are not known, but Arap's detention has caused an outcry among Kremlin opponents who say it echoes the Soviet practice of confining political dissidents in mental institutions to keep them quiet.

Politics and health care, it's a perfect marriage.

 

Sounding exhausted but coherent, Arap spoke to Reuters on a mobile telephone from the psychiatric ward near the city of Murmansk, on the edge of the Arctic Circle, where she has been since July 5.

 

She said her problems began when she went to see a doctor to get a certificate testifying she was in sound mental health -- a standard requirement in Russia for renewing a driver's license.

 

"She (the doctor) called the police. They kept me by force, then an ambulance was called, they bundled me in there and brought me here where I was beaten," Arap said on the telephone she had borrowed from a visitor.

 

"I feel unwell but I am trying to hold out. But my strength is dying away," Arap said.

    Yelena Vasilyeva, a fellow opposition activist who has visited Arap in hospital, said doctors had forcibly injected Arap with drugs. Read more.

...it's for your own good.

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Scaramella Arrested for Arms Trafficing

I tend to agree with Allahpundit's assesment on this one,

""In any case, he’s still not a suspect in the poisoning of Litvinenko, and this arrest tells us very little about who killed him or why. It does bolster my best theory wild speculation: that an arms deal was going down, and Putin’s goons stepped in to stop in a way that would send an unmistakable message to would-be nuclear smugglers.

I mean, why else would you use ten million dollars worth of easily detectable, slow-acting, exotic poison on a single guy, unless you wanted to make headlines?""

Exactly.

Timesonline put it this way,

Police do not know why the assassins used so much of the polonium-210, and are investigating whether the poison was part of a consignment to be sold on the black market.

They believe that whoever orchestrated the plot knew of its effects, but are unsure whether the massive amount was used to send a message — it made it easier for British scientists to detect — or is evidence of a clumsy operation.

Clumsy is a gross understatement, polonium has been found in Germany, the UK embassy in Moscow, British Airways flights, a London soccer stadium, over 30 places were tested in London alone. Russia has had a working knowledge of nuclear power for nearly as long as the US, yet are we to believe they would spread polonium all over London just to assassinate Litvinenko?

Then there's Litvinenko's concern with Chechen seperatists and his conversion to Islam.

A recent convert to Islam with an axe to grind with the West wouldn't care about polonium leakage, his own personal safety or the safety of others. All the facts are not in yet, but it seems far fetched that Putin would go to such rediculous lengths and botch the job so badly as to use $10m of polonium to kill one man who had walking the streets of London openly for years.

My guess is we'll never know the whole truth of this case, if Litvinenko was making a dirty bomb, or selling it to Islamic terrorists, the public will be shielded from that information. There is no doubt that if a polonium-like substance got into the wrong hands that it would be used in a terrorist attack, and this may have been an attempt. There have been reports of Litvinenko smuggling radioactive material from Russia to Swtzerland in 2000, and recently.

Telegraph: Police have arrested an Italian man who met with former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko the day he fell ill from poisoning, Italian news agencies have reported.

Mario Scaramella was arrested in Naples after returning from London, the ANSA and Apcom agencies reported.

Rome prosecutors have  allegedly been investigating Mr Scaramella for violating secrets and possible arms trafficking.

Mr Scaramella met with Mr Litvinenko at a London sushi bar on Nov 1, the day the former KGB agent fell ill.

The Italian was later hospitalised for treatment of suspected radiation poisoning, but has since been released.

 

Litvinenko's $10m Overdose

Overkill.
Original reports suggested that Litvinenko has recieved five times the lethal dose. Try ten times.

Timesonline British investigators believe that Alexander Litvinenko’s killers used more than $10 million of polonium-210 to poison him. Preliminary findings from the post mortem examination on the former KGB spy suggest that he was given more than ten times the lethal dose.

Police do not know why the assassins used so much of the polonium-210, and are investigating whether the poison was part of a consignment to be sold on the black market.

They believe that whoever orchestrated the plot knew of its effects, but are unsure whether the massive amount was used to send a message — it made it easier for British scientists to detect — or is evidence of a clumsy operation.

Inquires in Moscow Winding Down
Last night friends of Litvinenko, who was given British citizenship just weeks before he was killed, urged the Yard detectives to continue their work in Moscow.

Alex Goldfarb, who was at Litvinenko’s bedside during his final days, told The Times: "We hope the British authorities have enough willpower and clout to follow this through to wherever it leads.

"It was clear from day one that the Russian authorities would obstruct this investigation. This only adds to the suspicion they were behind this murder and are covering up."

"We want Tony Blair to live up to his promise that no political or economic obstacle will get in the way of the police enquiry."

 

Livinenko Poisoned Earlier Than Thought

Scotsman: A KEY witness in the death of the former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko claimed the radiation poisoning took place earlier than widely believed, a Russian newspaper reported yesterday.

Andrei Lugovoi, a spy-turned- businessman who met Litvinenko at a London hotel on 1 November, the day Mr Litvinenko suspected he was poisoned, said in an interview with the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets that he and Mr Litvinenko were poisoned on 16 October.

"Who told you that the contamination took place on 1 November? It took place much earlier, on 16 October," Mr Lugovoi was quoted as telling the newspaper.

Odd that he knows the exact day he was poisoned , and didn't tell anyone until now. It also looks bad that Litvinenko never mentioned mid October, and can't comfrm Lugovoi's story.

Here's the timeline Skynews gave us last week .

Oct 7 - Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent critic of the war in Chechnya, is found dead in her apartment building in Moscow with two gunshot wounds, one to the head. In Britain, Mr Litvinenko, begins to investigate the murder.

:: Oct 25 - The day security sources reportedly believe the radioactive isotope polonium-210 was flown to London from Moscow on British Airways.

If Lugovoi is telling the truth, then the Oct 25 flights containing polonium are irrelevent to this case.

:: Nov 1 - Litvinenko, a British citizen, complains of feeling unwell at his home in Muswell Hill after a day spent meeting contacts. He has lunch at a West End sushi bar with Italian KGB expert Mario Scaramella, then goes on to meet former KGB contacts at the Millennium hotel in Grosvenor Square.
-- Radiation traces are found at both locations.

Would it really take Litvinenko, who recieved five times the amount for a lethal dosage, a full two weeks to begin feeling ill?
 

Mr Lugovoi is himself undergoing radiation checks in a Moscow clinic.

Now on to France,

iht.com:  A Russian reported missing in the complex poisoning case of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko resurfaced Wednesday, saying in an interview that he is lying low after receiving death threats.

British media have described Yevgeny Limarev, who lives in France, as a KGB defector. Reports also have said that it was he who told Italian security expert Mario Scaramella that Russian security veterans were plotting to kill Litvinenko and other Kremlin critics.

But Limarev disputed those accounts. He told The Associated Press that he has "never worked for any kind of secret service." He also said that he never gave Scaramella information that Russian veterans or others wanted Litvinenko dead.

"I am not directly implicated in this case," he said in the telephone interview. "In reality, I have nothing to do with the assassination of Alex Litvinenko."

Clear as mud.

Limarev said he believes that Litvinenko's poisoning "was ordered and effected from Russia" although he did not believe that Putin "or any big chief of the government" was directly involved.

He said he believes that Litvinenko was killed to frighten Kremlin critics and "to distance Putin from the West."

"My personal belief is that they will not find those who ordered and effected the assassination," he said.