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Today's Lugovoi claim that Livinenko and Berezovsky are MI6 spies and British secret services were involved in the murder is an interesting twist. It is very possible that BB was involved with MI6 one way or another but i don't think they were behind the murder. It might be that they now know who was behind it but can't uncover.
Anything goes in the dark world of politics. I hate it.

malik

Malik Saidulaev was in Chechnya having a nice friendly meeting with Ramzan. He is planning to come back to Chechnya, open an office and invest a portion of his billions into his beloved motherland. He holds no grudges, how nice. How quickly sworn enemies become friends in politics. I'm sure he wll soon be offered an official post in the government in return for large financial investments, but not into the economy naturally, but private accounts of Ramzan and a number of Russian officials. I remeber the old days when he spent hours telling me about how he will rebuild Chechnya and i thought back then he was sincere, but since the he decided to play by the different rules.

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A well established English journalist i met at this event in the Forest Hill on Saturday said to me that he feels that, if not Berezovsky but any other man from another country would have made the statements he made, about planning a revolution in Russia (mentioning blood on the streets as something unavoidable), this man would be under house arrest. I was happy to hear that from an English journalist for the first time witout my prompting it. He aslo mentioned a coulple of people (whose names i will not disclose) who worked with Berezovsky and Zakayev and the rest of the gang as interpretors and are convinced he, BB, killed Litvinenko.

I was at Hyderabad meeting/celebrations yesterday. There are 200 million Muslims in India. Still a minority in India but that's more than in any country in the world, including Pakistan. There were prayers and speeches some of prety radical nature. The boss of this association looked like a regular gangster with his gold tie and gold watch and those mannerism; it apeared like he was on the Sopranos set and got lost.
Very interesting all in all.

BBC4 'The name of the British soldied killed in Afghanistan has been revealed....' We've gotten too used to hearing this line.

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You can't change the world, only your attitude towards it. Is it true? I hate to think that. It hurts me when i hear from my Nord Ost guys that after Strasbourg they will give up. Is the world so corrupted and our minds so twisted that it's beyond repair?

lugovoi

So, Britain is charging Andrei Lugovoi with Litvinenko's murder. Everyone is talking about relationship between the countries deteriorating further. I was on the radio this morning and said again that i don't think it's Kremlin or FSB. I saw interview with Lugovoi and he says he's innocent. Most importantly he said that the murderers are in London not Moscow. He said that the only thing ghe regrets is getting close to Litvinenko and that whole group, it' sclear who he means. He said that now he realises that what happened to him and Litvinenko, the planning of it started a long time ago. Those strange calls, meetings, business offers, he said. I was framed and my and my family's lives were put in danger, he added. I believe him. I have my rather specific theory to which i'll come back.

wrong way

So, Kasparov wasn't allowed to board the plane to Samara anf therefore couldn't attent the Other Russia march. This created a perfect opportunity for another bit of Anti-Kremlin PR. Putin and those around him are not so stupid as to hand these guys more and more chances to be trashed. I think Kasparov lost his away and i'm seing Berzovsky symptoms, sadly. He knows how to use or create a situation that would benefit him. It's no longer about people but about his own struggle for power with people, like my Nord Ost guys, getting used along the way. Still some people with shaved heads and swastika manages to march down lovely Samara streets so that's......good...

question

It is always interesting talking to Yosri, the man picked by Bin Laden to interview Al Qaeda leaders after 9/11. He said that he is surprised he is so controversial when he is simple doing his job. But he is doing what nobody else dares to do. He constantly puts himself in great danger.
I started a conversation about why Arabic culture is totally ignored in western shcools. If kids in America and England studied at least a little bit of Arabic literature, when they grow and become full memebrs of society, their understanding of the east and their attitude would have been completely different.

crisis

It was easy when i had something i believed in. Now that the political forces here in London have, in my opinion, completely disgraced themselves and the opposition in Russia is a joke, there is no one to stand with, exhibiting a determend look and ready for a fight. It is a crisis of beliefs and ideals for me.

post Nat Geo

It was one hell of a trip to Moscow. Continuation of the spy drama. Our attempt to get interviews from command center guys wasn't very successful. Still too raw, still under great secrecy, an ongoing investigation and the current frosty relationship with England didn't help at all. This is post Litvinenko reality and reality of terrorism and secret services, the same everywhere. The shoot was great. Fab Basayev.

National Geographic

So, i'm consulting on a National Geographic C. documentary on Nord Ost. I was called a
'guru' in this subject, which i'm not. The film will go by minute by minute through the events of those 57 hours. It's non-political and will not touch on any of the conspiracy theories. Very 'black and white'. Which i now begin to prefer. It is such a complex story with so many questions. Just when you feel you got it....

Three tough months on...

Haven't written here in ages. Too much happened. My mind was in chaos and my emotions - scattered. I'm just now starting to pull it all together. A pic of from that other age. I thought i was jaded. Little did i know what was to come.

Who are we fighting for?

I would like to say all is well but it's not. My play got a lot of publicity but few people came to see it. Indifference? Apathy? Mixed reviews? All those things and it is a great shame. Terrorism shouldn't be left to politicians. Yet it is. I thought not wanting to think about the unpleasant issues was a Russian thing but it's not. And the professionals who do their job well and knowing the risks keep exposing the ugly truth are killed. Like Anna.
I stand by everything i ever said and i can't help but feel sorry for this so called society.

Shamil, it's over

Shamil, It's over. I don't buy version that states that it was all 'an accident' for a second. He was an experienced fighter and a very cautious man so an idea of an accidental explosion is just ridiculous. It was most likely a well prepared operation, as FSB states, carried out for obvious political reasons right before G8 gathers in St Petersburg. He was kept alive in order to be eliminated at the 'right time'. Don't you just love big politics! The image of his head in rubbish bag is a pretty strong one i must say. The image that marks an end of an era in the Chechen war.

What IS going on???

So today 4 Russian diplomats or more likely FSB emplyees had their heads cut off in Iraq. The tornado of comments from every possible side somehow involved in this leads one to believe that very few participating parties know what they're doing, who they're siding with and, more importantly, what's the point of all this.
Putin sympathisers blamed in turn international terrorists (the most logical and obvious one) and Americans who allegedly set it up to get Russians to support them in Iraqi war. Ahmed Zakhaev came out and said it was the doing of FSB who this way present Putin with the card to play at the G8 in July; easy to picture the tragic look in his eyes: 'Russia is as much a victim of the world terror as you guys. Hold my hand George...'
It seemed many of those fighting for the freedom of Chechnya, in Russia and beyond it's borders, seemed proud of the such showing of support for their cause from an international community of radical Islamic extremists. Tears in their eyes, half whispering something about Islamic brotherhood. And, of course, those who actually carried out this whole thing said something about atrocities committed by the Russian government in Chechnya and how they don't like it and then went off and cut these guys' heads off.
Their confusion and chaos makes me scared.. but also hopeful because it shows a very real weakness, incompetence and insignificance in all of them. And aside from the very real deaths of those men and sorrow in their families, the whole thing looks like a stupid farce.

Flowers and Fashion

There is a lot of activity at the moment in Chechnya, Afganistan etc. Constant reports keep appearing of significant losses on coalition and Russian side as well as taliban and Chechen rebels expanding their control to further territories. It is unclear where it will go from here. Hmm. May be i should start writing about flowers and fashion.

Basaev at it again?

There is currently a new uprise in rebel activity in Chechnya and Dagestan at the moment which is disturbing. A number of questions arise: 1) is it genuine and rebels headed still by Shamil Basaev-Bin Laden of north Caucasus- as suggested are fighting back after a number of FSB conducted operations or fabricated and aimed to justify Russian activity in the region and create a feeling of instability (always a great political tool as we all know); 2) what will follow (presumably more bloodshed and not a joyous tea party for all); 3) uhh...personal.
Grey, grim, gruesome...

Independent Investigation Report - Dubrovka

The report of the independent investigation into Dubrovka theatre siege conducted by a group of survivors and victims' relatives is to be unveiled on Monday. The first question that arises is how much and what kind of information could they have dug up and what were their sources. It is unlikely any of the secret services would have willingly shared 'the truth' with them, so the report is likely to be another set of 'why', 'who' and 'how come' type questions as oppose to constructive account of who orchestrated the tragedy and what were their goals. Which is a shame as people who, i am sure, still feel nauseous imagening the last hours of their loved one's life-the hunger, the smell of urine, the numbness in the limbs, the gas, the gunfire, the blackout-deserve the truth. In this case, however, the truth will prove to be too much.

Mr. Udugov, chehen rebels' press mann (as strange as that may sound), came out again to warn Russians of new attacks on their own land. i feel these kind of statement are gradually getting less and less responce from people. He also stated that the main cause chechen rebels are fighting for is the declaration of shariate law in the state of chechnya, and it officially becoming an islamic state. He also added that common chechens (some of who are moderate muslims without any of the above 'ambitions') don't need to be consulted on this. Not extreme at all. And mark the bull's eyes.