During the last few days the International Editorial Board of burtsev.ru—a group of investigative reporters associated with the Internet weekly Left Russia (left.ru)--received information from several reliable sources about latest activities of the international alliance of secret services who have been engaged in subversive activities against Russia under the cover of the “consulting company” Far West LLC, with headquarters in Dubai.

The alliance includes the secret services of the USA and UK (CIA, DIA, MI-6, MI-5, and the Scotland Yard), represented by their front companies: Diligence LLC, KBR, New Bridge Strategies, Erinys International, Titon International, Meteoric Tactical Solution, and Aegis Defence Services. From Saudi Arabia-- the General Intelligence Service, represented by Prince Rasheed as Rasheed, a relative of Prince Turki al Faisal, and the family of Adnan Khashoggi. The Turkish General Staff and the Gray Wolves, as well as the President Kadyrov's military, are represented by the “Istambul Bureau,” or the Information Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, under the command of the brigadier-general Ruslan Saidov and Khozh Nukhaev, wanted by Russian Prosecutor for the murder of Paul Khlebnkov of Forbes Magazine. The Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), represented by generals Vladimir Filin and Alexei Likhvintsev. KGB of Belorussia, represented by General Valery Lunev and the vice-president Viktor Sheiman. Lithunian military intelligence, represented by Audrius Butkevicius and Rolandas Paksas.

Their senior partners are said to be the defense minister Robert Gates, his close associate Fritz Ermarth, formerly (?) of the CIA, NSC, NIC, and the Rand Corporation, who since his retirement has been working under the cover of the Nixon Center and the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the former ambassador in the Soviet Union Sir Roderic Braithwaithe, his close associate Ruslan Berenis, thought to be senior officer of British military intelligence, and Prince Faisal al Turki, former head of the General Intelligence Service of Saudi Arabia, and ambassador in Britain and the United States.

Below we publish our summary of the information we received from several sources.

1. The chief of the Istambul Bureau Ruslan Saidov and the billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev who recently fled Russia and filed for political asylum in England, prepare a bloody provocation during the coming opposition meeting in the North Caucasian city of Nazran, Ingush Republic on November 24. There is a strong possibility that the violence they plan will lead to human victims and will be recorded on video, blamed on federal authorities and used for a new round of the psychological warfare waged by the corporate press in the West against the independent course of President Putin.

2. One of the shadow chiefs of the Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), Vladimir Filin, has recently been given additional political role. Following his appointment as the head of the Working Group for coordinating the intelligence activities of Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Belorussia, Filin was assigned to coordinate the collaboration of Ukrainian intelligence with their Georgian counterparts. This means that GUR will provide the Georgian military with th e intelligence about Russian special services in the Caucasus. The strong operational capacities that GUR has in Moscow and Rostov-on-the Don will assure the quality of intelligence that the Georgians will be receiving now. This can indicate that after he has crushed the recent protests in Tbilisi, President Saakashvili and his US advisers now plan a military provocation in the breakaway South Ossetia.

3. After consultations with Robert Gates and Condoleeza Rice, Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic States, and Belorussia begin to prepare for a warfare against Gasprom, Russian natural gas state monopoly, and indirectly against Germany. Filin will coordinate the activities of special services in this operation. It is expected that around the New Year these countries will succeed in blocking 100 percent of Russia's natural gas deliveries to the EC (with the exception of Finland). For this purpose, Ukraine filled to the fullest all its natural gas storage facilities in the western parts of the country. Theoretically, this reserves will last for the participating countries till the next fall.

1. The gas blockade will be supplemented by the blockade of food deliveries from the EC to Russia through Poland, Ukraine, Belorussia, and the Baltic states.

1. There has been an increase in the activity of the Chehen gangsters from the former “Alazan” organized crime group of Khozh Nukhaev in the Russian ports of Novorossiisk, Tuapse, and Jugbe. This indicates that closer to the New Year one can expect that these entry points will be used for the arrival of professional commando teams from Saidov's “Istambul Bureau.”

6. In coordination with the above preparations, US state agencies are about to make highly visible arrests of and accusations against several highly placed Russian officials under the article 312 of the Patriotic Act . These officials are associated with Gasprom, Transneft, and Ministry of Agriculture. The last can be used as pretext for a food blockade against Russia.

7. At the same time, the US officials pressure the leadership of Turkmenistan for sharp increase of the natural gas sold to Gasprom. This pressure tactics include threats to arrest Western bank accounts of unnamed Turkmen officials.

1. The intelligence information suggest that the US, Britain, and their allies in Asia prepare serious military provocations in Kyrgyzstan and the Uzbekistan part of the Fergana Valley.

1. The situation in Russia will become most critical January and February of 2008. In the words of one of our sources, “If in addition something bad happens inside the country we may not be able to control the situation.”

Russian original is at < http://left.ru/2007/15/barbarossa167.phtml >

Our comments

The first confirmation of this information came when this English translation was being prepared. On November 14thGlenn R. Simpson of the WSJ reported that “the government of the British Virgin Islands told the U.S. Justice Department there is "overwhelming evidence" Russian Telecommunications Minister Leonid Reiman secretly owns a large chunk of Russia's telecoms industry through an offshore fund.”

It is not accidental that this news comes from the WSJ crowd that have been the cheerleader of the psychological warfare against Russia in past few years of which Dr. Goebbels himself would have been proud. An analysis of WSJ anti-Putin publications since the summit in Bratislava might have revealed an uncanny coordination with a number of subversive activities in Russia and London that FarWest undertook during this period. We believe that WSJ is extremely well connected both with the influential nucleus of the Council for International Relations and the right-wing elements (perhaps even rogue elements) in the US intelligence community who have been pulling the strings behind the FarWest alliance.

In the specific case of Glenn R. Simpson's piece “Russian Regulator Under Fire; Virgin Islands Says Evidence Points To Telecom Holdings,” out attention was drawn to Simpson's failure to inform his readers about the relations between the Alfa Group and its owner Russian oligarch Mikhail Friedman and the elements of the US intelligence community behind FarWest. According to Simpson,

• The case [against Reiman – ed.] originates from a dispute over the rights to a 25% stake in Megafon, one of Russia's biggest mobile carriers, between Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman and IPOC. The evidence that IPOC is owned by Mr. Reiman was the subject of an Oct. 17, 2006, article on page one of The Wall Street Journal.

Indeed, that article, “Russian Connection: Why Putin's Telecom Minister Is in Investigators' Sights Abroad; German and Swiss Probes Tag Leonid Reiman as Owner Of Businesses He Oversees,” also failed even to mention one piece of information that was in public domain: Friedman's Alfa was in bed with Diligence LLC and that was only the tip of the iceberg. Alfa's international advisory board of directors included the chairman of Diligence LLC Richard Burt and Lord Charles Powell, member of its advisory board.

Richard Burt of Diligence LLC and Mikhail Friedman of Alfa Group: a dangerous alliance against Russia

Simpson, who co-authored that article with Gregory L. White, David Crawford, might have missed the importance of this fact at that time. But since then the BusinessWeek investigation revealed that Diligence was doing some dirty job for Friedman, spying on IPOC and violating laws. Strangely enough, the experienced team of investigative journalists working for BusinessWeek has also failed to notice that Ambassador Burt was on the board of Alfa Capital when the company hired Diligence LLC and that Burt was also the international director with the influential Washington lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith and Rogers that hired Diligence for Friedman. In short, Burt's Alfa Group hired Burt's Diligence LLC through Burt's Barbour, Griffith and Rogers to dig some dirt on Reiman. What for? Why would Ambassador Burt and his friends in Diligence LLC like the former director of the CIA and FBI William Webster, managing director of the Carlyle Group Edward Mathias, former adviser to Margaret Thatcher and John Major Lord Charles Powell, former President Clinton's Chief of Staff Thomas F. McLarty and other luminaries of the conservative TransAtlantic cabal – why would they be interested digging dirt on Leonid Reiman and other Russian crooks in high positions? Do they have in mind blackmailing Russian leadership into surrendering Russia and its natural wealth to Western crooks in power? Hm... how can one entertain such a ridiculous proposition even for a moment! Shame on us!

For more on Diligence LLC, Farwest LLC, and Alfa Group see our article “US Companies Linked to Vice-President Cheney Supervised the Transfer of Ukrainian WMD to Iran .”