Anna Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of the war in Chechnya, was murdered — contract-style — in early October, the latest in a series of killings of journalists in Russia under President Vladimir Putin.
Now, Robert R. Amsterdam, an international attorney, a lawyer for jailed Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and a Russian specialist, reveals to NewsMax that the murder by poison in Great Britain of Alexander Litvinenko, Russian ex-spy and journalist, is more of the same.
Politkovskaya's editors said the martyred reporter had been due to publish an investigative article about torture and kidnappings in Chechnya based on witness accounts and photos of tortured bodies.
Amsterdam, who was retained by Khodorkovsky, the former head of the now nationalized Russian oil giant Yukos-Group, now jailed in the Gulag, is a founding partner of Amsterdam & Peroff, a Toronto-based international law firm. In an interview with NewsMax he stated:
"I think the Litvinenko murder is consistent with the Politkovskaya murder, and my hunch would be that it relates to information concerning Chechnya and the very beginnings of the Putin presidency and issues relating thereto."
In 2001, Litvinenko published "Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within." In the book, Litvinenko claims that the Federal Security Service (FSB) was involved in a series of apartment block bombings in 1999 that killed more than 300 people. It was suggested that the attacks were blamed on Chechen rebels in order to justify the Russian invasion of Chechnya.
"Litvineko, I think, had more information on that issue," revealed Amsterdam. "There are sharp parallels with Politkovskaya."
Amsterdam sticks to his Chechnya theory — despite the recent reports that Litvinenko had visited Israel in the weeks before his murder to pass a dossier on the Yukos affair to former Yukos Oil second-in-command Leonid Nevzlin.
"He [Litvinenko] only recently gave me and my attorneys documents that shed light on the most significant aspects of the Yukos affair," announced Nevlin, who fled to Israel to avoid the same fate as Amsterdam's client Khodorkovsky.
Investigators of the Litvinenko murder reportedly said Litvinenko had uncovered "startling" new material about the Yukos affair and what happened to those opposing the Russian government's forced break up of the company.
On the heels of the Khodorkovsky prosecution for fraud and tax evasion, Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, now worth an estimated $60 billion, took over Yuganskneftegaz, the nation's largest production asset, from Yukos.
Igor I. Sechin, a firm ally of Putin and member of a hardline faction in the Kremlin known as the "siloviki" — or men with ties to the secret police or military — is chairman of Rosneft.
When NewsMax pressed Amsterdam about the Yukos Oil dirty secrets theory and that perhaps the former Russian agent was murdered to keep it from coming out, Amsterdam was adamant:
"It's
"None of it went to the Russian treasury. It was all stolen money. That information is out there — we just close our eyes to it. This is the biggest theft since World War II, and Western banks are involved . . .
"One of the things that I find funny about this whole Nevzlin issue is that the whole dirty dealings in Yukos is well known in public. I don't think there is anybody in the West who doesn't think that this wasn't a show trial [the Khodorkovsky trial]. I travel the world talking about this case. I don't have anybody even asking me about whether it is real or not anymore. It is one of the reasons why I discount the whole Yukos connection."
When talking about the bigger picture, Amsterdam has a strong opinion and an insight into the timing of a recent enactment by the Russian parliament, the DUMA.
"I think the United States has completely misread Russia," said Amsterdam. "I think Mr. Bush going to Mr. Putin for help on Iran is one of the most foolish things I have ever witnessed. It is Russia that is stoking Iran's nuclear capability.
"I think that the Americans, being so absolutely foolish and, unfortunately, weakened by Iraq, and the Europeans being generally spineless have lead Russia to an unprecedented degree of hubris and arrogance, which has resulted in Russia passing a law a few months ago called the ‘Counter Terrorism Law,' which legalized attacks such as these occurring in foreign countries."
When asked if such attacks could include that against the former KGB agent in Great Britain, Amsterdam answered, "Right."
Amsterdam was pressed on whether this Russian enactment is one a par with, the U.S. president reauthorizing the CIA to surgically eliminate enemies in foreign countries.
"Yes, except the difference is this was passed by the DUMA, so it is, in many ways, very transparently empowering the president to do whatever he might want to foreign countries," said Amsterdam.
Amsterdam further expanded his reading of the bigger picture in response to whether the Litvinenko death-bed charge that Putin was involved in his murder spelled even worse trouble for Putin.
"One of the things I am very cautious of is rushing to judgment on anyone — whether it is Putin or anyone else," said Amsterdam. "So personally I won't talk about Putin. At this point we have to wait and see what the evidence is going to disclose. I will tell you I'm in London and there is very much of a mess here — whoever did this is getting much more of a reaction from the British then they bargained for."
Amsterdam continued with another surprising take.
"This is tremendously damaging in the short term to Russian interest, but I think we all have to be cautious about the fact that the very perpetrators of this may have had that in mind," he explained.
"This may be an attempt by insiders in the Kremlin to force Putin to stay on," Amsterdam added. "The man may be completely innocent, but, unfortunately, the system he is creating leaves a lot of responsibility at his door for the very lack of transparency and shady dealings that are going on."
Amsterdam was asked how this latest murder affair would force Putin to stay on.
"To the extent Russia becomes isolated from the West, it leaves Mr. Putin with less ability to be a respected ex-president," said Amsterdam. "For Putin to leave office, he has to be left with a core of legitimacy. This kind of deliberate terrorist act would rob him of that."
Even the mere speculation that he was involved?
"That is right," said Amsterdam. "I mean, this is terribly damaging to Mr. Putin, and there are many in the Kremlin that
Just this month at a luncheon for about 50 foreign experts at his residence outside Moscow, Putin vowed to step down in 2008 saying he would recommend his successor fight poverty and ensure strong economic growth, the Reuters news agency reported.
"The most interesting point was that he reiterated that he does not plan to run again for office in 2008 as he believes he has a moral duty not to break the constitution," said Angela Stent, director of the center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University in Washington.
Amsterdam was then asked if he had seen the Nevzlin dossier and if the contents of it might have an impact on the fate of his jailed client in some future motion he would file.
"First you have to understand that in Russia we have no rule of law at all," Amsterdam said. "So we can file 1,700 motions in Russia and they are going to go nowhere."
As to any ultimate cooperation by Russian authorities in solving the murders of Litvinenko and Politkovskaya, Amsterdam is highly dubious.
"What it does is simply demonstrate how completely arbitrary, dangerous, and unopposed is the present Russian government, and what we all need to do is hope that Europe wakes up to the threat and really begins to engage with Russia in respect to Russia building some form of democratic protection," Amsterdam said.
Some time ago, more than 100 members of the European Parliament signed an open letter urging Putin to give Amsterdam's client a new fair trial. Now, instead of any consideration of a new trial, the Russian prosecutor's office is continuing fresh criminal proceedings against his client — moving to the deadline to Dec. 2.
When asked whether this latest move is in anyway connected with a potentially embarrassing/incriminating material regarding Putin's Yukos maneuverings, Amsterdam said, "I don't see any connection between Litvinenko and these charges. If there are further charges [against Khodorkovsky], it is simply an attempt by the Russians to legitimize the theft of Yukos. That is all they are after.
"That is all they are interested in. That is all they care about. They want to try to make this theft stick. They are negotiating with companies to bid on stolen assets. They have an entire bureaucracy dedicated to making this $50 billion legitimate. So that is the only goal that they have."
Another sore point with Amsterdam — beyond the troubles of his own client — is the ongoing investigation by Russian authorities of four U.S. and British senior executives of Yukos.
"These baseless and specious charges have been brought against innocent professionals whose only crime was to protect the interest of Yukos shareholders," Amsterdam said in a recent statement.
Amsterdam told NewsMax of the most recent developments regarding the foreign targets.
"The latest is that the British and the Russian prosecutors have done an agreement which should make it easier to extradite people to Russia. That is absolutely an absurd development in light of these recent developments," said Amsterdam.
Amsterdam also commented on what he perceives as yet another tentacle of the growing Russian perfidy.
"The other thing that you should be aware of is that the Russians are spying at a level well in excess of the Cold War," Amsterdam disclosed. "Canada has just expelled — not expelled, they have just arrested — a major Russian spy from the First Director.
"I met with Canadian officials about it a week ago. The Canadian government is so irate at the behavior of the Russians that instead of just expelling the official, they have arrested and charged him with spying."
Amsterdam recently address Washington's Cato Institute where he emphasized that Russian energy policy is reflecting a change in the conduct of the Kremlin's domestic and foreign affairs. He explain how the treatment of private energy companies in Russia is part of a broader pattern of political centralization and jived with the global goals of Russia's more aggressive, energy-driven foreign policy.
"Whether it is where they are working hand-and-glove with the Chinese, we have a Russia that is scoring tremendous successes internationally," Amsterdam told NewsMax.
In the energy field, in particular, Amsterdam concluded, the U.S. is either sleeping or is caught up with Iraq.
"I know that from a Bush standpoint, it is supposed to be a uni-polar world, but from Europe you almost wonder where the U.S. is anymore," he concluded.
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