WEB BUZZ MAFIA

A file picture taken 14 September 2004 shows Russian ex-spy and fierce Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko , after a press conference in London . The British government has evidence that the Russian state was involved in the radioactive poisoning of Litvinenko , a hearing into his death was told yesterday. Russia ’s thousand-year history is littered with conspiracies and conspiracy theories. Claims by Alexander Litvinenko ’s supporters that he was a Russian spy and, last week, by his widow’s lawyers that he was an important agent for MI6 , belong in all probability among the latter. Litvinenko was actually a middle-ranking KGB (and later, FSB ) enforcer who fell out with the Kremlin and with his former colleagues. He threw in his lot with the Kremlin ’s public enemy number one, Boris Berezovsky , and when Berezovsky fled to England in 2000, he fled with him. From the imagined safety of London , Litvinenko poured out his bile on Vladimir Putin , hurling ever more i...

He has also provided evidence against those linked to the 2009 death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, a case that caused an international outcry and prompted the United States to push for a bill cracking down on Russia n corruption . Perepilichny, a Russia n citizen, collapsed and died abruptly outside his home on an upmarket estate in the English county of Surrey on November 10, police said on Wednesday, the first time the case has come to light. Perepilichny is the fourth person linked to the Magnitsky case to have died in strange circumstances. "It is being treated as unexplained," a police spokeswoman said. "A post-mortem examination was carried out which was inconclusive. So further tests are now being carried out." British media reports said Perepilichny appeared to be in good health when he collapsed in the evening outside St George's Hill , one of Britain 's most exclusive estates, where he was renting a house for ...

Wealthy Russians, including mafiosi , would most benefit from an EU bailout to Cyprus, Der Spiegel magazine reported Monday, quoting a German intelligence agency report. "The BND report shows who will profit most from the billions in European taxpayer funds -Russian oligarchs, businesspeople and mafiosi who have parked their illegal earnings in Cyprus," the magazine said. The magazine reported that a large number of Russian businessmen have placed large sums of money in Cypriot banks, attracted by lower tax rates, even if Cyprus has shed its reputation as a tax haven since joining the EU in 2004. In total, around €20 billion ($26 billion) was deposited in Cyprus in 2011 by Russian oligarchs, which is more than the island nation's gross domestic product of €17.8 billion, the BND report found. These deposits will be guaranteed if a European bailout is approved to shore up the island's banks. The BND, Germany's federal intelligence service, also ...