Eye Spy - May 2018

EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 115 2018 13

©PETER CURBISHLEY

Police arrive at the Zizzi restaurant. At this moment the security services seem
oblivious to the actual nature of the threat - note the public presence. The
government says more than 130 people could have been exposed to Novichok

Uzbekistan from 1999 onwards; that it was

the Ukraine trying to discredit Moscow; the UK

trying to distract from Brexit; that Britain used

it to ‘smear’ Putin ahead of the recent 2018

Russian elections, and that the US may have

launched the attack, either through the ‘deep

state’ (underworld actors) or because of Mr

Skripal’s potential links to the private security

firm that compiled a dossier of allegations

against Donald Trump.

CORBYN’S UNWELCOME SIDESHOW

UK Labour Par ty leader Jeremy Corbyn

originally suggested that the nerve agent

attack could have been carried out by

Russian-linked gangsters rather than ordered

by Moscow and continues to question both

the intelligence and evidence against Russia.

Corbyn questioned Boris Johnson’s claim that

Porton Down officials were “absolutely

categorical” in linking the Novichok agent to

Russia. “Either he has information he is nor

sharing... or it was an exaggeration,” Corbyn

said. His remarks were widely condemned by

ministers. And intelligence analysts agree,

some intelligence is naturally being withheld

for security and future evidential purposes.

©

GARRY KNIGHT

Jeremy Corbyn

Nikolai

Glushkov

Glushkov is detained in Moscow

©TASS

Continued on page 35

asylum in the UK in 2010. In February 2016

Britain refused a request from Russia to

extradite him on fraud and other charges.

According to Tass, a Moscow court tried him

in absentia for embezzlement from Aeroflot.

Court papers suggest Glushkov conspired

with Berezovsky to restructure and embezzle

loans worth an estimated $122.5 million.

SKRIPAL - MI6 OR FREELANCE?

Sergei Skripal operated as a double agent -

working for Russian military intelligence

(GRU) while also providing secrets to MI6. He

is said to have revealed the identity of

numerous Russian agents in overseas

countries, who were duly asked to depart.

That in itself may have given rise to suspi-

cions that ‘somewhere’ in Russia a mole was

operational. In 2010, he was pardoned and

released as part of a spy swap for 10 Russian

agents. Skripal continued to be viewed as a

traitor by Moscow, and some reports suggest

he may have been ‘freelance’ - spying for

private intelligence firms in the UK. Either way,

Eye Spy has been told he maintained links to

former associates in Moscow and elsewhere.

KREMLIN DENIAL - ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE

The fact that Russia is responsible may seem

obvious, but it will be difficult to prove. Even

when the evidence is overwhelming

Moscow’s best defensive tactic is often a

simple rejection. Denial of responsibility is a

Kremlin trait, without any framework or

evidence to make the said denial plausible. It

is often delivered with a ‘knowing sneer’.

Refusal to be held accountable for actions is

combined with “satisfaction at giving an

impression of deliberate menace,” said one

commentator.

THE LENGTHENING HAND OF MOSCOW

Assassination attempts, cyber-attacks,

military interventions - Russia is once again

playing a deadly game with the West. After the

fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it was hoped

that the super-powers and their respective

allies would enter a period of peace. Russia

THE RUSSIAN LIST

Further questions are now being raised on

previous incidents and deaths, including one

just days after the Skripal incident on 12

March - Nikolai Glushkov. Like Litvinenko,

Glushkov was an associate of the late Boris

Berezovsky, who was questioned as part of

the British inquiry into the poisoning of

Alexander Litvinenko.

Glushkov, based in London, had been last

seen in a “perfect mood” as he prepared for a

cour t case against the Russian state airline

Aeroflot. He was found suffocated, though it

was subsequently discovered he had been

strangled and hung post-mor tem in an act to

make it look like a suicide. And Glushkov and

his associates told Eye Spy he was never

convinced of the police explanation that

Berezovsky had “simply killed himself.”

BACKGROUND

Glushkov was sentenced in 2004 by the

Savelovsky Cour t of Moscow to three years

and three months in prison and released for

time served. Thereafter the former Deputy

Director of Aeroflot was granted political