Most people outside the geo-political sphere know nothing whatsoever about the Boris Yeltsin era Russian oligarch named Boris Berezovsky. His colleague in exile, the former FSB spy Alexander Litvinenko, is far better known for his finally succumbed to the effects of radioactive Polonium 210 in 2006. It was Litvinenko the UK government and the mainstream media said was “probably” ordered killed by Vladimir Putin. But the other side of the story tells of two who were intricately involved in the steeping criminal activity Boris Yeltsin essentially resigned over, and the literal theft of the heritage of the Russian people from the instant of perestroika onward. In a poisonous bit of irony, a slew of Russian mafia outcasts and New World Order captains have now fallen into the same game of blackmail and murderous betrayal, or something my Dutch colleague Holger Eekhof refers to as “The Berezovsky Trap”.
Berezovsky was one of a group of predatory businessmen who became natural foes of Vladimir Putin and his mission to clean and rescue Russia. As for Litvinenko, he was first Berezovky’s head of security, and later one of the heads o the FSB Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups. During this time (1997) this directorate was considered as much a part of organized crime as it law enforcement. The sordid trail of dark dealings, murders, coercion and graft these people were intricately involved is right out of a novel on organized crime. Gangsters like Al Capone and the widespread tentacles of 1930s Cosa Nostra had nothing on the mob carving up Russia in the 1990s. But my report is not about the Russian mob, it’s about a much bigger and insidious mafia, and the levers it uses to “convert” presidents, CEOs, professors and artists to do the dirty work of controlling profits.
Today international détente is run by real “Dons” and real “Godfathers”, an elite group of industrialists and bankers whose endeavors demand massive control, control brought about by coercing leaders in every field. For powerful people like these Russian billionaires though, just money and influence can never be a real incentive. These “agents” must be targeted for their weakness and trapped with the only incentive that makes sense – life and death. When Berezovsky was forced to leave Russia in 2000 over his brand of antireform activism, he instantly became a “mark” for the same western oligarchs trying to slice up the Russia pie. Berezovsky was already in cahoots with the likes of the Rotshchilds and Soros, when he contributed anti-Putin and anti-nationalistic rhetoric to mainstream outlets like the Washington Post and others. Putin announced intolerance for “oligarch” controlled media such as Berezovsky controlled, and the western mafia found a willing ally. He was arguably the first, ergo the name of this trap for betrayers of Russia. This Russian became the archetype for crying against the renewed Russia of Putin. Berezovsky was the first to launch concerted campaigns to expose the supposed misdeeds of Vladimir Putin, but Yukos oil oligarch Mikhael Khodorkovsky was to become the prototypical puppet. Both Berezovsky and Khodorkovsky got rich in the crooked Yeltsin plan of privatization called “Loans for Shares” under which Russia’s natural resource and industrial wealth was sold for pennies on the dollar (or ruble). When Putin came to power the legitimization of Russian business and policy drove the worst predators out.
Now we come to the “life and death” lever being used on powerful “sympathizers” who’ve fallen into the Berezovsky Trap. Researching what happened to Berezovsky in the days and weeks leading up to his mysterious suicide, I’ve concluded he was murdered by the elites who recruited him. I believe Berezovsky had a change of heart, and that he intended to go back to Russia. The fact he sold a house he owned in the prestigious Wentworth Estate in Surrey and his 172 acre Hascombe Court estate adds credence here, but a letter Berezovsky wrote to Vladimir Putin before he died purportedly contained as personal apology and a request to be allowed back into Russia is more evidentiary. Why would Berezovsky write such a letter and then hang himself? This seems the most obvious question.
I believe Berezovsky got into a position where he had gleaned enough information on his western “handlers” so as to become invaluable to Mr. Putin’s new Russia. I also believe he attempted to make use of the allegations it was he who killed his former colleague Alexander Litvinenko. This RT report entitled “Berezovsky killed my son”, as of the Spring of 2012 opens the door for Berezovsky with regard the father of Litvinenko’s testimony to Scotland Yard. The point of the man’s associations and seedy past cannot be overlooked in my view. On the one hand Berezovsky was associated with the likes of Neil Bush, the younger brother of the US President George W. Bush, and on the other with Georgian oligarch Arkady “Badri” Patarkatsishvili, who became the enemy of US puppet Mikheil Saakashvili. “Badri” also died in the UK under mysterious circumstances from an untimely heart attack in 2006 after allegations he intended the overthrow of Saakashvili. It’s possible “Badri” was another oligarch snared in the Berezovsky Trap, and one who was killed for going against the order bent on controlling Georgia. This is speculative, but logic dictates I mention it. The coroner who examined Berezovsky’s body filed an initial report saying his death could have been suicide. Later the same coroner reported he could not be sure.
Other Berezovsky associates dot the landscape of protected “New Order” assets against Russia. Akhmed Zakayev is one who is mysteriously still alive even after being branded a terrorist by Russia. Even despite the charges against Zakayev from the First Chechen War, the Head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov said he personally invited Zakayev to return to Chechnya if Zakayev did not want to be “used by special services and other forces against Russia”. This is another possible lead in to “who’s killing who” among western puppets. Of those caught up in our Berezovsky Trap there are two varieties of anti-Putin assets – those still alive and those dead. It seems abundantly clear for me that the ones left are doing what their masters wants – and that the others did not. Finally, if Vladmir Putin were the evil mastermind western media makes him out to be, then its certain Mikhael Khodorkovsky and other “successful” agents would certainly be deceased by now.
Next I’ll present Americans who seem so apparently caught in this Berezovsky Trap.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.