Rostislav Ishchenko: British Borgias. Spy games. Why was Skripal poisoned? Yuri Litvinenko for those who survived
The exchange of Colonel Sergei Skripal in 2010 for a dozen Russian “illegal immigrants” (“sleepers”) arrested in the United States was not typical, since never before had the Soviet, or Russian, government exchanged Russian (Soviet) citizen spies for its own spies, caught abroad. Foreign spies were exchanged, but Russian (Soviet) ones were not exchanged for their own citizens accused of espionage. Apparently, in 2010, the Kremlin had no choice - it too wanted to get back to Russia the ten people caught in the United States, led by the famous Anna Chapman.
Probably from the first day of his life in the UK Skripal, without realizing it, since, of course, no one had ever laid a finger on the exchanged spies before the current incident. Imagine what the American or British intelligence services would have looked like if they had killed Anna Chapman and all the other dozens of previously exchanged members with poison in Moscow, while also killing strangers?
The poisoning of former intelligence officers, as well as the poisoning in general of opponents of the current Russian regime in Russia and abroad, has so far been the most common method of eliminating enemies. Poison (if you compare it to a gun) always complicates the investigation. First you need to establish that the victim was poisoned. Then try to determine what kind of poison and who did it. It is quite difficult to prove anything here. , for example, poisoned on November 1, 2006, it took several years. And even after all the charges were proven in an English court and brought against the Kremlin, they still refused to admit responsibility for the murder.
In the case of Skripal, we will face similar difficulties at all stages of the investigation, and Putin and his entourage will laugh in our faces and mock everyone, especially since he once already paraphrased a famous phrase from a Stalin-era Soviet film about Alexander Nevsky: “Who is with the sword?” will come to us and die by the sword.” Putin said: “Those who drop poison somewhere will swallow it themselves; in the end, they themselves will be poisoned by this poison.”
Even more tragically, all other members of the Skripal family died earlier under strange circumstances: his wife in 2012, his son in 2017. Only the daughter remained, now poisoned along with her father.
We still do not fully understand exactly what kind of poison Skripal was poisoned with. We also don’t fully understand, as initially in the case of Litvinenko, whether he will survive or not. Litvinenko was poisoned on November 1, 2006, and died on the 23rd. There is much we still don’t know, but the analogy with the case of Alexander Litvinenko is obvious.
Moreover, this is not the first such poisoning abroad and in Russia. Of the proven cases abroad, these are the murders of Litvinenko (2006) and businessman Alexander Perepelichny (2012). Of the obvious cases in Russia, these are the deaths of Yuri Shchekochikhin (2003) and Roman Tsepov (2004). So poison is the favorite type of weapon of the Russian special services.
The list of people who died in London under dubious circumstances is also serious. It includes, among other things, English citizens. We must not forget that two well-known businessmen who were related to Litvinenko, namely Badri Patarkatsishvili and Boris Berezovsky, also died under dubious circumstances. Badri died of a heart attack in 2008, being, in general, a young man, and Berezovsky was found hanged in 2013 in the house of his ex-wife.
Unfortunately, after Litvinenko's death, the only conclusion that the Russian government made was that there would be no punishment for the crimes committed. Russian government public opinion in the West is no longer very worried. After all these deaths; after, after a year; after interference in the elections of a number of European countries and in the American elections of 2016; After Putin’s last foreign policy speech, where he brazenly and straightforwardly blackmails the whole world with nuclear war, the Kremlin does not care about the opinions of the entire surrounding world.
The murder of a political opponent, be it the murder of Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 or Boris Nemtsov in 2015, is always a message, a signal, a warning. This is also one of the fundamental rules of the Russian FSB and GRU, rooted in the Soviet KGB and Stalin's NKVD. This strict rule was that a defector must be eliminated at the first opportunity. Those who escaped during Stalin's time were almost all eliminated. During times Soviet Union there were a few escapes, but there are also dubious deaths and obvious murders. For the Russian defectors themselves, this was not news or a surprise. Any of them understood that they were under a death sentence.
But what is new is the elimination of all family members of a defector or an already exchanged spy. The first means that the opponent of the Russian regime, the Kremlin, Putin, the FSB and the GRU now risks not only his life, but also the lives of all members of his family. The second is that the very fact of spy exchange loses its meaning. If the exchanged spy can then be killed, what is the point of exchanging someone for someone else - since the Russian side will still end up eliminating not only the exchanged spy, but also his family members. Only they did this to Trotsky. Before killing Trotsky in 1940, Stalin first killed Trotsky's youngest son, Sergei, in the USSR (1937), and then Trotsky's eldest son, Lev, in Paris (1938).
Perhaps the removal of Skripal is also a threat to all those Russian citizens who were involved in a complex and lengthy FSB operation to interfere in the 2016 American elections, which led to the victory of Donald Trump. The Mueller Commission investigation continues. As part of this investigation, many Russian citizens living abroad or visiting the United States who are willing to testify to investigators may be questioned. If not only you, but also your family members are responsible for your actions in new conditions, then the decision to open your mouth and tell the truth becomes extremely risky.
One way or another, Putin has rewritten the rules of traditional spy games, replacing all the old ones with one new one: now there are no rules.
14/03/2018
The poisoning of Sergei Skripal (pictured) and his daughter Yulia in the British town of Salisbury makes us think about the fate of Russian intelligence officers who were accused of treason and went abroad. Let us note that Vladimir Putin’s words that traitors to the motherland “will bend themselves” came true not only in the case of Skripal.
The poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the British town of Salisbury makes us think about the fate of Russian intelligence officers who were accused of treason and went abroad. Let us note that Vladimir Putin’s words that traitors to the motherland “will bend themselves” came true not only in the case of Skripal.
In July 2016, Interfax reported the death of former colonel of the Foreign Intelligence Service Alexander Poteev. In Russia, Poteev was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with all ranks and awards. According to investigators, Poteev is one of those responsible for the “surrender” of Russian illegal intelligence officers in 2010, among whom were Anna Chapman, Richard and Cynthia Murphy, Juan Lazaro and Vicky Pelaez, Michael Zotolli, Patricia Mills, Mikhail Semenko , Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracy Lee Ann Foley. It was they who were later exchanged for agents of Western intelligence services - former colonel of the Main Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) Sergei Skripal, former foreign intelligence colonel Aleksand Zaporozhsky, military analyst in the field of nuclear weapons Igor Sutyagin and intelligence veteran Gennady Vasilenko. Poteev himself managed to hide in the United States even before the investigation, but information about his death has not yet been confirmed and may be “disinformation aimed at simply forgetting about the traitor.”
At the same time, it is known for sure about the death of the one who enticed Poteev to play on the side of Western intelligence services - foreign intelligence officer, diplomat Sergei Tretyakov, reports the newspaper Le Monde. He also took part in the “surrender” of Russian agents to the Americans. In the United States, he and his family members were granted asylum, but he did not live long in America - he died in June 2010, choking on a steak.
How strange life path Diplomat Evgeniy Todorov, who fled to Canada, also graduated in 2010. Death was caused by electric shock in the bathroom.
Ex-KGB major of the Latvian SSR Boris Karpichkov told the British publication Mirror that they also tried to poison him. Karpichkov himself claims that he survived the poisoning, but his body suffered irreparable damage - he lost 30 kilograms of weight and went bald. The reason for the poisoning was allegedly his open publication of the names of FSB agents. According to Karpichkov, there are several more targets, the elimination of which is presumably planned by the intelligence services:
Oleg Gordievsky, 79 years old. An MI6 spy, a Cold War double agent who left Russia in 1985 in the trunk of a car. He passed on a lot of information to British intelligence.
Bill Browder, 53 years old. US-born financier who has been banned from Russia since 2005. Interpol refused to extradite Browder to Russia after he was sentenced here in absentia for tax fraud to 9 years.
Christopher Steele, 53 years old. A former MI6 officer who runs a private intelligence company. Probable author of the "Trump Dossier", including a compromising video of a dispute between the future US President and prostitutes. Let us remind you that there is a possible connection between Skripal and Steele.
Igor Sutyagin, 53 years old. Scientist, nuclear weapons specialist, sentenced to 11 years for spying for Great Britain. Spent almost 11 years in prison. Was exchanged for Russian sleeper agents in the American spy network, among whom was Anna Chapman.
Yuri Shvets, 65 years old. Former KGB major, defected to the US in 1994. He is the main witness in the investigation into the poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Vladimir Rezun (literary pseudonym Viktor Suvorov), 70 years old. Captain of the USSR GRU, defected to Great Britain in 1978. Author of controversial history books Soviet army and intelligence.
Karpichkov allegedly learned that his name was also on the “black list” in February.
Andrey Cruz
Those who survived
south of Placentia Bay, Newfoundland Peninsula
The Rogue, a massive and clumsy-looking cruising yacht-trawler eighty feet in length, was leisurely and solidly cutting through the gray-green ocean water with its high bow, moving parallel to the Canadian coast and now being approximately abeam of Newfoundland, its easternmost tip. I was now turning the helm, and our most experienced navigator - the young Dutch artist Hendrike, who responds mainly to the short version of her name, which sounds like Drika - was sleeping in the cabin after an eight-hour watch. For my watch, I had Vietnam veteran and former truck driver Sam, an unusually cheerful and determined old man who joined us in Texas. Now he's holed up in the ship's engine room, poring over the owner's manual. marine diesel. Well, that’s right, there’s only one here, diesel in the sense, and if there’s a breakdown, we’re screwed, we have no options. No one will rush to save us, because there is no one left. The whole world actually died, along with all the rescuers. And the Rogue diesel engine, according to the same Sam, differed little from the diesel truck, so he had to cope with this hardware.
Emptiness, emptiness all around. But this void is calm, it is not the dead country we left behind, it is just an ocean that we leisurely cross at a speed of eight knots. Eight knots is eight nautical miles per hour, not fast at all, not by car or by plane. It roughly turns out that we’ll be hanging out in the ocean for about three weeks. I don’t even know if this is good or bad. If the weather is like it is now, when the wind is driving a small wave, and the sky is clear all the way to the horizon, then it’s probably good: you’ll have a rest. Such a good vacation, flavored with fishing. No zombies around, no zombified mutants, no bandits - no one at all. A funny thought flashed through my mind about pirates, but who will pirate now if all shipping has stopped?
True, we saw several fishing trawlers yesterday - apparently, Newfoundland fishermen went fishing, but they did not pay attention to us, just as we did not pay attention to them. We noticed, and that’s it, everyone has their own affairs and their own paths, good luck to everyone.
So, eight knots. Meanwhile, a thousand miles of sea are already behind us, already covered, melting away in a foamy trail behind the rounded stern of the Rogue. We spend even less fuel than we expected - we go with the warm ocean current, the Gulf Stream, which carries us almost where we need to go. This kind of thing is very pleasing, and we are moving ahead of schedule, so far the journey is only five days. It is we who give eight knots, but the current also has its own speed.
Ahead, if everything goes according to plan, is Amsterdam. We need to drop off Drika in Amsterdam. Not just to drop her off, of course, but first to find out where her mother is, to whom she is going. And what is going on there in Amsterdam? Has this old city on the canals turned into a semblance of the New York we recently left? If the city is normal and we find the mother, we will part ways. If not, what you don’t want to think about, we’ll think further. We'll come up with something, that's understandable. So far they have come up with it, at least.
The path of our boat was previously laid out to the British Plymouth, from where we intended to turn into the English Channel, or the Channel, as the British call the strait. I wanted to look from the ship at both the British and French shores, to understand what the invasion of the dead meant for Europe. There was very little hope for her survival, to be honest. There is overcrowding, an unarmed population, liberal governments, and small weak armies - everything is against them. No light, to be honest. I remembered little Switzerland, where everyone is liable for military service and keeps a machine gun at home, but this, it seems to me, is not enough at all. What to take from the population of a country that has not fought with anyone for hundreds of years and has always tried to stay away from any mess?
I don't know, I don't know. I can’t believe in a happy outcome - that’s all. However, we are definitely not on our way to Switzerland. The French coast, the Belgian coast, and after that the Dutch coast. That's it, the first point of our journey will be reached, we can rejoice.
Sam... Sam still hasn't said anything about his plans. Will he go ashore in Holland or will he go further with me, all the way to St. Petersburg - no word yet. Well, I don’t insist: the time will come - he will say. Maybe he himself hasn’t decided yet and joined us only because he had nothing to do.
The cat, who came to us back in Arizona, doesn’t care, it seems to me. He is now sleeping right behind me, on the sofa intended for the watchman to rest. At the same time, he is not going to replace me in the post, so he occupies it without any right to do so - he usurped it, one might say. But there’s nothing you can do about it, their whole cat tribe is like that.
We won’t have enough fuel to reach St. Petersburg - there are still one and a half thousand miles to go, the route is tortuous, but I suspect that in Europe we can get hold of it somewhere, in some port or marina - take it and dump it. We have already gone through this matter and figured out how to act. But what’s there in St. Petersburg... I don’t know and I’m afraid to imagine. New York, recently abandoned, comes to mind again - a gigantic dead city, decaying like the corpse that it essentially is.
There is a fleet in St. Petersburg. More precisely, in Kronstadt, but the fleet is already serious. I think that Kronstadt will be recaptured and they will not allow lawlessness off the coast. I hope so, at least - what remains for me. There is also Kaliningrad nearby as a backup option. What's bad? In any case, if I get to the Russian shores, I’ll cope further. I also have an enduro motorcycle, it’s right next to the boat, wrapped in a plastic case, I have plenty of weapons and ammo - everything to spare. I'll figure it out. Or we’ll figure it out, this is how it will turn out.
You hope for this, you hope for that, and all these hopes are the only way to predict events. No television, no Internet, no radio - nothing. Everything is at random. And at random, the most important thing is that for which I always strive to find for myself as much as possible more problems: family. Where are they? What's wrong with them? Is everything okay? This is what prevents you from sleeping normally, what sends bad dreams, which makes you think about anything - just not think about the main thing. Wife. Children. In general, those people who make up the very meaning of my life, without them it is devoid of any motivation. There are none - why live on your own?
But there is nothing irrational in my hope for the best. They had, as the Americans say, head start, in our language - a head start. They were outside the city when Trouble came, they were in a strong large house with supplies of food and water, and most importantly, they had weapons. Not my current arsenal, naturally, but two new and high-quality shotguns with several hundred rounds of ammunition were a real treasure at that time. And with them was his wife’s brother, Volodya, a big, strong man, who had served and was amazingly resourceful, who also had a pregnant Nastya in his care, so that was also an incentive to move. Later I found out - there was still a connection then - that he managed to get hold of a PPSh [Shpagin submachine gun], and two TT pistols, and a whole zinc cartridge from the military, who began distributing weapons at gas stations around Moscow. In general, we should have settled down safely, in my opinion, especially since there were still quite a few people in the village - we lived outside the city.
In the meantime... in the meantime, we need to get to a country called the Kingdom of the Netherlands - this is the minimum task. That's where we're going. The mark on the chart plotter is creeping, the navigator screen is cut by the straight line of our course, the Furuno radar honestly shows an almost empty screen - there is no one in the ocean large enough to mark themselves with marks. Emptiness, as I said.
Footsteps were heard from behind, Sam entered the control room, wiping his hands with a towel as he walked.
Why are you here and not upstairs? - he seemed surprised. - The weather is fine, yes, sir, I would sunbathe.
Overhead is another cabin, open - especially for those who wish to receive sunbathing, so to speak. It's called a "flying bridge".
“Reluctant,” I shook my head. - The chairs here are softer.
Indeed, three incredibly comfortable swivel chairs covered in creamy leather are lined up along the control panel. Once you sit down, you don’t feel like getting up. The seats at the top are vinyl, they will be harder, there is no such grace for the seat.
Sam looked at his watch and said:
There's still an hour and a half left before my shift, I'll abandon the spinning rod.
Yeah, go ahead,” I nodded. - Good tuna would be nice.
After the “can and ration diet” that we were forced to adhere to most of the time during our journey across America, the opportunity to fish was a real treat for both the soul and the stomach. The first tuna caught, large, streamlined, thick, gave us several kilograms of dryish and dense dark red meat, which turned in a frying pan into the same dense, only grayish steaks, surprisingly tasty. The next attempt to fish almost immediately ended with the next tuna, and now Sam was counting on catching the third. Well good luck.
Leaving the boat in the care of the autopilot, I went to the kitchen, which I couldn’t dare call a galley - it looked very chic, I probably didn’t have one like that in my house near Moscow. He poured water into the kettle and turned it on. Wow, here we have all the benefits of civilization again - a hot shower, and electricity, and even an air conditioner, which no one turns on, though: it’s so fresh, and fuel is saved.
That's why Moscow is not on the seashore, or even some warm one? So I would have gotten there, with comfort and a hot shower. Well, and air conditioning, albeit turned off, of course. And it is quite possible to live on board the Rogue, and to live very well. I wonder if people somewhere came up with the idea of living on board, for example, large cruise ships? There are large generators there, and there are a lot of cabins, and it’s easy to protect such a place from invasion. Okay, let's see what to guess now.
Moscow is a port of five seas. Haha. Canals, locks - who will let whom through now? All my life I dreamed of living somewhere by the sea, but it never happened. Maybe now I can move my family somewhere to a similar place? Where? To St. Petersburg? So it’s not clear what you’ll have to eat there: the places are not very agricultural, this same St. Petersburg region covers the Volga region like a whale from such positions. And the “devour” position is much stronger in any planning, basic, one might say.
Okay, so far the problem is getting there. I’ll get there and you’ll see, I’ll come up with something there.
The kettle quickly boiled, clicking the switch, boiling water poured into the mug in a tight, steaming stream, quickly becoming colored by the tea bag dangling there. Two spoons of brown cane sugar - and you can go back to the bridge, look at the deserted horizon of the Atlantic Ocean.
somewhere in the middle
Days dragged on, miles upon miles, and nothing, absolutely nothing happened. Even the landscape did not change. The weather was good until last day. A light breeze, moreover, a tailwind, a small wave, which was not even capable of rocking the Rogue in any noticeable way, the muffled hum of a diesel engine - they had already stopped noticing it. Everything is normal. Even the shift schedule was disrupted - we discovered that living like this was a bit boring, and we changed “creatively”, gaining time so that we could at least all sit down at the table together and communicate.
Strangely enough, it all felt like a holiday in the country, especially after I found in kitchen drawer gas grill and began to fry quite a decent kebab on it from the usual tuna - for some reason that was the only one we caught.
Thursday morning did not greet us as kindly as before. The wind became sharper, colder, and the horizon to the southeast became noticeably darker.
“It looks like a storm,” Sam said, without revealing anything new to me: that’s exactly what I was thinking about myself.
It seems,” I agreed with him. - Very similar. What are we doing?
I don’t know,” he shrugged. - Shall we try to take it further north? To the north, and directly ahead, the sky is still clear.
Come on,” I sighed, leaning over the chart plotter and making course corrections. - I don’t think it’s possible to come up with something smarter.
Drika, who stood next to us, although she was the most experienced navigator of all, just shook her head. Her experience, too, was measured by several trips on her uncle's yacht, so we were all a fine example of amateurs who had minded their own business. The only thing I remembered about storms was that we had to try to keep the ship’s nose towards the wave all the time. I didn’t know what to do if the wave comes from the direction you absolutely don’t want. And it seems that none of us knew this.
The next few hours passed in anxious anticipation. The horizon was darkening, it was becoming cloudy, windy, the waves were frequent and sharp, pounding against the cheekbone of the “Rogue” with a noticeable splash. It became cool, everyone pulled on their rain jackets.
By the middle of the day it became clear that the idea of deviating from the course was not very productive: the storm was coming towards us diagonally, but with a very wide front, so it seemed impossible to get around it. It was necessary to simply turn back to avoid it, but no one was even going to consider such an idea. And it will certainly catch up.
“So,” I said, scratching the back of my head, “we need to secure everything that is not secured.” I remember this for sure, from children's books. And then check again whether everything is securely fastened, so as not to discover that later the motorcycle, say, dived into the water. Drika, then let you take the helm, and Sam and I will inspect the farm.
Our emergency work was completed in about an hour; we removed and secured everything that could move. Then they gathered in the control room, where control was transferred from the “flying bridge”. Unlike the bridge, it was warm here and even swayed a little less - we were lower. The door to the deck slammed shut, finally separating us from the weather. At the same time, the wind became sharper, the waves became higher, and splashes began to fall from the crests, falling on the windows - it was necessary to turn on the windshield wipers. Drika, who took the helm, changed course, turning the Rogue towards the wave - the roll became too sensitive, and the storm had not even begun yet.
We’re deviating from the route,” Sam sighed sadly, seeing how on the navigator screen a red line was added to the blue course line, stretching from the arrow indicating the position of the ship. And the red one moved further and further away from the blue one.
There is no choice,” Drika said. “This is the only course we can take now.”
And where is he leading us?
I poked my fingers at the chart plotter's zoom arrows, then answered Sam:
Somewhere at the junction of Spain and Portugal. It's not all that scary - the places are inhabited, let's figure out what's what.
He just chuckled in response, then said:
It’s good that yesterday they figured out how to pump all the fuel from the barrels into the tank. It looks like our consumption will skyrocket.
The dark edge of the sky gave me similar thoughts. Not only will our course be against the waves and wind, but it will also leave the Gulf Stream, the speed should drop significantly. It would be nice if there was enough diesel fuel to reach the shore. Should be enough. Hope.
We didn’t want to think about what awaited us ahead. No one had broadcast weather reports for a long time, and we had no idea what kind of storm was heading towards us. But the “Rogue” had its own limit to seaworthiness, and if what awaits us does not fit into this limit... we don’t even have to continue.
It was scary, but somehow moderately scary, with an admixture of fatalism: what will happen certainly cannot be avoided. And look, you will still be able to get past it. Our whole trip looks too much like an adventure - it’s hard to be surprised by another danger.
somewhere in the middle
The pitching motion was getting stronger and stronger, but so far the “Rogue” was coping with it. Fortunately for us, the storm coming from the southeast was moderate so far. If we had been aboard the container ship Alicia, which we missed in Houston, for example, we might not have felt it much, but our eighty-foot trawler was shaking quite a bit. He would either effortlessly climb up the gentle water hill coming towards him, or fall down its reverse slope, sliding like a big, clumsy surfer. At the lowest point, its high stem knocked out a whole cloud of spray, flying towards it, into the glass of the wheelhouse, along which long brushes scurried back and forth measuredly.
I replaced Drika, but she didn’t go far - she was sitting in the next chair, drinking mineral water with lemon juice. Fortunately, no one was overcome by seasickness yet, and the reason for this was clear - no one went to the cabins, everyone looked forward. People usually get motion sickness who does not see the wave coming towards them and whose body perceives every jump or failure as a surprise, squeezing out all the possibilities from the vestibular apparatus. This method will not help - there is another: alcohol in moderate doses. It seems like it’s impossible, but considering that there is no one to look after us, it’s even possible to do it a little at a time. If supported.
How long will this last, I wonder? - Sam asked, not addressing anyone in particular.
Maybe all the way to Europe,” I shrugged. - This is not a hurricane, like in Texas, it’s just bad weather, and it happens for several days in a row. You know it yourself.
“I know, yes, sir,” he agreed grimly.
This happens for two or three weeks with us,” added Drika. - Rain, wind, don’t even leave the house at all. Normal weather.
A report published in the UK on the results of a public investigation into the murder of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London caused a wide international response. The author of the report, Judge Sir Robert Owen, who presided over the open hearing, named Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun as the perpetrators of the murder of Litvinenko, emphasizing that the Russian state was behind them. A Radio Liberty correspondent met in London with one of the key witnesses at the London hearings in the Litvinenko case, former Soviet intelligence officer Yuri Shvets.
Yuri Shvets served in the First Main Directorate of the KGB. He studied at the Andropov Red Banner Institute of the KGB of the USSR at the same time as Vladimir Putin. In 1985-87, Major Shvets worked in the KGB Washington station under journalistic cover. In the KGB he served in the department in charge of the American direction. Having resigned in 1990, Yuri Shvets emigrated to the United States three years later, where he was granted political asylum. Shvets is the author of the best-selling book "The Washington Station: My Life as a KGB Spy in America." He worked closely with Alexander Litvinenko after his emigration to England, working together with him on the so-called business-security– preparation of analytical reports for British and American companies and banks that intended to work in Russia or invest in the Russian economy.
Former KGB officers, using their connections, provided Western clients with information about possible risks for investments, the presence or absence of criminal connections among their potential Russian partners, and compiled reputational dossiers of officials and businessmen. In an exclusive interview with Radio Liberty, Yuri Shvets comments on the results of the open hearings in the Litvinenko case, in which he participated, and analyzes the report of Judge Owen.
– Judge Robert Owen noted that it was very likely that Vladimir Putin was behind the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. True, the judge did not clearly name him as the mastermind of the murder. Could such a serious operation - the murder of a foreign national abroad - be carried out without his sanction?
“This is absolutely impossible, as I said when speaking for two and a half hours at a public hearing on the Litvinenko case in London. The entire history of Soviet and Russian intelligence services testifies to this, and the entire bureaucratic system is built on this Russian state. In the Soviet Union, such decisions were made by Stalin, and after him, decisions to kill persons outside the Soviet Union were made by the Politburo. In Russia, this could only happen with the sanction of Vladimir Putin. The murder of Litvinenko is a terrorist attack in one of the largest capitals of the world using nuclear weapons. This is a serious operation - I’m not talking about its moral aspects now. But purely technically, from the point of view of the intelligence service, this is a serious and risky operation that could have failed for a huge number of reasons. By the way, it partly failed because it was eventually revealed, albeit after the fact. The main thing in such operations is to cover yourself, to relieve yourself of responsibility; so that if something happens, they don’t take your head off, let someone else be responsible for it. In this system, the absolute cover can only be President Putin.
– Could the then head of the FSB of Russia Nikolay Patrushev as a so-called “gift to Putin”, to single-handedly organize an operation to eliminate Alexander Litvinenko?
- No way. I have been following the career of Mr. Patrushev since he was still serving as a junior officer in the Leningrad department of the State Security Committee. This is an extremely cautious official who would never dare to carry out such an operation without cover. In this case, the “gift to Putin” would be dubious, but if something goes wrong, you can “get it” in full. Therefore, no one would dare to do this without Putin’s sanction. Moreover, the FSB alone could not have done this. This required coordination with another department, because the FSB does not produce polonium. It had to be obtained from somewhere. The process of obtaining polonium from another agency requires interaction between the two agencies. This operation also required cooperation between various divisions of the FSB.
– Judge Robert Owen has no doubt that Lugovoi and Kovtun were the perpetrators of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. However, he suggests that they could have been used in the dark, that they might not have known that they were dealing with radioactive polonium. Do you think this could happen?
“I think that’s how it was.” They knew that they were working with poison, that it would kill Litvinenko, but they did not know that it was a radioactive substance that was dangerous to their own lives. The whole calculation was based on this. After the murder of Litvinenko, Lugovoi and Kovtun were supposed to self-destruct. Apparently, they were instructed in such a way that after the murder, getting rid of the polonium, they should become infected and die soon after returning to Moscow, from the same polonium. This would have happened if not for an accident. As soon as thunder struck in London, Lugovoi and Kovtun rushed to the Ekho Moskvy radio station with an interview. The main purpose of this interview was to announce to the whole world that they are alive. After this interview, which they gave in obvious confusion, frightened, they could no longer be killed. It was necessary to make them deputies and somehow protect them.
– Don’t you think it’s strange that Kovtun and Lugovoi, experienced intelligence officers, could buy into such a simple operation?
“They were not experienced intelligence officers. I don’t know Kovtun well, but, in my opinion, he hasn’t done anything for many years. As for Lugovoi, he has been a security guard all his life. A security guard is a special category of people who worked in the Ninth Directorate of the KGB and guarded the “big shots”. The "big shots" in the USSR were of advanced age. The main practice of such guards is to lead a person by the arm to the toilet, dress him, put him in the car, take him out of the car, etc. What qualifications are there?! This is security, VOHR! That's why it happened that way. If these were super agents, they would not have been found guilty in this case.
As for Lugovoi, he was a security guard all his life
It’s all about this analytical note on Viktor Ivanov, which Litvinenko gave to Lugovoy, which talked about Ivanov’s connections with an organized criminal group. Lugovoy was stopped at Sheremetyevo when he was returning from London to Moscow, and this paper was discovered. Naturally, she ended up in the FSB, then to Ivanov himself. Lugovoi had nowhere to go. They told him: “Either we will strangle you here, or you will do what we force you to do.” I have traced Mr Lugovoy's career back to his work for Berezovsky. I have the impression that he worked closely for the FSB all the time when he worked for Berezovsky. This whole story, when he went to prison for a year, etc., was all organized in such a way as to create a legend for him, with which he could then come to London to Berezovsky and say: “Here I am for you and yours.” friends suffered,” in order to gain his trust. And he succeeded.
– How do you imagine the future fate of Lugovoy and Kovtun? Can we say that they are now safe?
“She seems to me to be in a very sad state.” If everything was normal in the country, they could secretly receive Heroes of Russia, like Mercader did in his time for the murder of Trotsky. But the whole point is that, from my point of view, Russia is now at approximately the same stage as the Soviet Union was somewhere in 1989, a couple of years before the collapse. The anticipation of this collapse was accompanied by a number of visits. A whole chain of secret messengers reached from Moscow to Washington in order to bargain for their lives, protection and safety of some capital after the country collapses. All their lives they fought against damned imperialism for the bright future of all mankind - communism, and when the rooster pecked, they ran to Washington for protection. Because what they feared most was not American imperialism, not the mythical Third World War, not the US attack on the USSR. Most of all they were afraid of the senseless and merciless, bloody revolt of the Soviet people against them, the communist leaders. When they came to Washington, they were ready to hand over everything, including the most valuable KGB agents, which foreign intelligence had been creating in the United States for 20 years, since the early 70s. They were all handed over right then.
The process of an avalanche-like collapse of Russia will begin within the next one and a half to two years. So I wouldn’t give a penny for the life and safety of Messrs. Lugovoy and Kovtun
I strongly suspect that the process of an avalanche-like collapse of Russia will begin within the next one and a half to two years. So I wouldn’t give a penny for the life and safety of Messrs. Lugovoy and Kovtun, because they will be one of the first whose heads will be demanded in exchange for guarantees of the safety of some current Russian officials. I very much suspect that soon there will be much more for them safe place there will be a comfortable British prison than life in Russia. So if I were them, I would slowly pack my backpacks and prepare for a secret border crossing.
– Judge Robert Owen names several versions of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. One of them is consultations from the Spanish and British intelligence services, the other is analytical reports on people close to Putin. One of these certificates, already mentioned, for Viktor Ivanov, you helped him draw up. Owen's report makes reference to the fact that Putin's personal hostility towards Litvinenko could have been the reason for the murder. Which of these versions seems most likely to you?
– It seems to me that the most probable version is the one I outlined in my testimony before the London court. Everything that was said at these hearings, everything that later formed the final conclusion of Judge Owen, took place. The reasons on which Litvinenko was killed, that is, the complex of his guilt, from the point of view of the Russian special services, accumulated long time– as long as he was in London, everything accumulated. This includes his harsh statements about Putin and other Russian figures, his cooperation with law enforcement agencies different countries and assistance in investigating the activities of Russian organized crime groups in Italy and Spain. All this went on for a long time. For a long time, Litvinenko insulted Putin and nevertheless continued to live. During this time, a whole string of people who were connected with the Russian intelligence services passed through Berezovsky's office. Each of them during these two years could have killed Sasha, and yet this did not happen. The psychotype of the current leaders of the Russian state and intelligence services is such that they would not wait ten years, harboring a grudge that you were called a pedophile ten years ago. They would not wait years to deal a fatal blow to such a person. These are not such people.
They wouldn't wait ten years, holding a grudge because you were called a pedophile ten years ago
From my point of view, on the eve of Litvinenko’s murder there must have been some kind of trigger - an event that pushed the “snowball” that then formed on the top of the mountain. Something had to push him so that he would roll and the operation to kill Litvinenko would be launched. I think that this was the same analytical report about Viktor Ivanov. It doesn’t seem to me that the FSB was the initiator of the murder. I know the specifics of the Russian special services. Dozens of people worked for Litvinenko and, in general, for Berezovsky’s office in Moscow. The FSB probably had an entire department dedicated to this topic; probably half of the station in London and the European department in the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) worked for it. Dozens of people have made a career out of it. It should be understood that the activities and career of an intelligence officer or intelligence officer depend on the success and quality of the information he obtains. Extreme success is when its information is reported to the highest leadership of the country. Information on Berezovsky and Litvinenko automatically went to the very top. Over the years, dozens of people have written hundreds, if not thousands, of different scribbles about Berezovsky, and it all went to the top. People received orders, medals, stars, and so on. It was a sinecure. If by chance Berezovsky or Litvinenko died, they would have to pretend that they were alive in order to continue this writing.
The FSB probably had an entire department dedicated to this topic, probably half of the station in London and the European department in the Foreign Intelligence Service worked for her.
In this regard, I will tell you one amazing story. It happened in one of the Latin American stations. When one of the agents died there, his contact, an employee of the station, allegedly kept in touch with him for at least two years, wrote information about it, carried money, allegedly gave it to him. Then, when this agent’s business trip ended, another arrived and was horrified to discover that the agent had been dead for two years. Therefore, for the FSB, in a normal situation, living Berezovsky and Litvinenko are much more profitable than dead ones. With their death, the sinecure ended. And after that what to do? We need to do something. And after a sinecure I don’t want to do business. Therefore, I very much doubt that it was the FSB that initiated the operation to kill Litvinenko. Most likely, as I already said, the initiative came from General Ivanov. But since the FSB was needed for this case, Patrushev was involved. Patrushev connected the capabilities of the FSB, and the operation took off.
– Yes, I knew him personally since about 2002.
– This is not the only certificate that you compiled together?
- No, I was a whole series certificates - either four or five, which I compiled at his request.
– Marina Litvinenko, after the announcement of Judge Owen’s decision, called for Russian agents working under diplomatic cover to be expelled from the UK. How do you feel about this idea? Is this real?
“It's possible, but I don't think it would be smart or useful.” Why? I worked in the KGB foreign intelligence when Margaret Thatcher at one time she expelled almost the entire Soviet embassy from Great Britain. In response, the Soviet government expelled almost the entire British embassy from Moscow. The sharp deterioration in relations continued for either two or three years. If Great Britain expels, Russia will also expel. This is clear because this is the practice international relations and relationships between intelligence agencies. After Margaret Thatcher made this gesture, the analytical department of the KGB foreign intelligence for a long time had no idea about the plans and intentions of the British government regarding Russia. And we are not talking about any secrets. As the analyst told me when setting the analytical task: “We don’t even know their official position regarding the USSR on key issues.” This, by the way, was on the eve of Gorbachev’s meeting with Thatcher, and relevant information documents were prepared for him. This is bad, it is dangerous, because there must be some knowledge about each other in order to build normal relationships and avoid irreparable, irreversible development of relations. As for the sanctions, the agony of the regime has now begun, the process of self-disintegration has begun. The existing sanctions are enough to make this process irreversible. I would do something different. In London there is the so-called Cultural Center of the Russian Federation. I would have closed it. As far as I know and understand, this is the roof of the FSB in central London. This organization is a direct successor to the “Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship with Foreign Countries,” which was originally organized as a roof for the KGB’s foreign intelligence service.
Every second one there was ours; I knew these guys, I worked with them. Then this “roof” ceased to exist along with the USSR. And now, like a Phoenix bird, it has been reborn in the form of this Cultural Center, which, I know from Washington, is creating a fifth column of Russian emigration, of students. The recruitment of agents is underway there; its employees are trying to create it on patriotic and other grounds. Moreover, an extensive network of agents is being created, which even the KGB did not have at one time. The KGB during the Soviet Union was always jealous of Israeli and Chinese intelligence services, which successfully targeted large colonies of Jews and Chinese throughout the world. When the intelligence services of these countries needed something, they went to these diasporas and there received answers to their questions. The USSR did not have such an opportunity then; there were not so many loyal emigrants. The Russian special services got it. Therefore, Russian intelligence is largely recent years migrated from the SVR (which Putin does not like because he was not hired in intelligence at one time) to the FSB, where Putin worked and which he trusts more. This Cultural Center serves as the roof of the FSB. Last year in the US the tail was pinned down on them and they went quiet. In London, my impression is that they are thriving.
– And the British don’t know about this?
– I have the impression that no.
– After you drew up this fateful certificate for Alexander Litvinenko, did you feel a threat to your life? In the end, if we assume that this certificate became fatal for Alexander Litvinenko, perhaps they could pay attention to you.
– You know, the British have a saying: kill the messenger- Destroy the messenger. This is what happened. When I wrote this note, I did not feel any fears, because it simply did not occur to me that Sasha could do such a stupid thing as hand her over to Lugovoy. This work is business security, business intelligence - a sensitive and confidential business. Subsequently, when this case was revealed, naturally, I sensed the potential danger.
– Was Litvinenko really well acquainted with Putin and communicated with him when he was head of the FSB? I somehow doubt that the FSB lieutenant colonel and the FSB director, admittedly also a former lieutenant colonel, communicate so easily.
– I was not present at their personal conversations, but Sasha told me about them, and I completely trust him. Why? Because in terms of their qualifications as FSB officers and former KGB officers, Sasha and Vova were people of the same professional level. Both were lieutenant colonels. True, when Putin was appointed director of the FSB, he was given a third star and became a colonel. They were people of the same level. Positions of different levels - yes, but Sasha had big advantage: He was considered a favorite of Boris Abramovich. And Boris Abramovich at that time had such power, such influence that could compete with the influence of the director of the FSB. Boris Abramovich could demand the closure of some division of the FSB or insist on the opening of some division. As a favorite of Boris Abramovich Berezovsky, Sasha could kick open the doors of very high FSB chiefs. And they had to treat him with very great respect.
– What do you think about the death of Boris Berezovsky? Lots of rumors, lots of speculation. The judge gave an open verdict...
– I spoke with people who knew him closely, communicated with him in the last years of his life. They said it was suicide. I trust them in this regard. If you imagine that this is a murder, but then it had to be a perfect murder. By and large, I don’t believe in a perfect murder committed by the Russian special services. I believe in the murder of Litvinenko, yes, this is the handwriting of the Russian special services. They left it behind, messed it up, came to Moscow, they should have been removed, but they weren’t – in general, it was a mess. If we assume that Berezovsky was killed, then this is an absolutely perfect murder! This only happens in movies. Therefore, I am inclined to think that he probably committed suicide.
– Did you know him personally?
– Yes, quite well, I communicated often and communicated very closely. The acquaintance began with the fact that in 2000, a group of security guards of the then President of Ukraine Kuchma secretly recorded all conversations in his office. These tapes surfaced and there was a scandal. And I was the person who made the transcript - listened to it, put it all on paper, and then posted it on the Internet. Sasha and Berezovsky were around this matter somewhere on the periphery.
– Do you think someone will ever bear responsibility for the operation called “liquidation of Litvinenko”?
- Someone will definitely be punished. In Britain, nothing is forgotten and no one is forgotten. I remember a case when UK law enforcement agencies had to wait 10-20 years for a person who was hiding in some countries to become available to them as a result of events in these countries and be punished. Taking into account, again, the current state of Russia, the process of self-disintegration that has begun, I fully admit that very soon Messrs. Lugovoi and Kovtun will suffer a well-deserved punishment, because otherwise they will be threatened with real death in Russia. As for other high-ranking figures, Putin still has immunity. He had apparently already made the decision that he would sit in his chair until the grave, until he was taken out of there in one form or another. Patrushev is a person who must also hold on to this regime with his teeth. A difficult fate awaits them, says a former KGB officer Yuri Shvets.
The British government has already announced impending sanctions against individuals directly or indirectly involved in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. They will be banned from entering the UK and their assets will be frozen. In addition, the government intends to tighten existing sanctions against Russian Federation and revise the interstate cooperation program.
Official and media London has a strange understanding of the methods and traditions of the Russian intelligence services. Judge for yourself.
In November 2006, in the British capital, former FSB lieutenant colonel Alexander Litvinenko dies after drinking tea with polonium for some reason. In 1998, he and several of his colleagues said at a press conference in Moscow that their superiors ordered them to kill Boris Berezovsky. In 2000, Litvinenko fled to the UK and received political asylum there.
Without going into the Homeric details of this case, we will only note that, according to Litvinenko himself, his superiors in the FSB since 1997 gave him instructions to either kill some former intelligence officer, or kidnap some businessman, but he did not carry them out, on the contrary, it warned potential victims about the danger. At the beginning of 1998, the FSB's own security department was investigating Litvinenko for official abuses and systematic abuse of alcohol. And this employee, who failed to carry out a whole series of “delicate instructions” allegedly given to him, and who is in the process of developing his own security department, was allegedly instructed to kill Boris Berezovsky. Of course, there was no one else to entrust.
Litvinenko poisoned himself and died. London immediately suspected that the FSB had killed him. Without providing any evidence other than suspicions, he sent several Russian diplomats, froze relations with Russia, and the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who was called Washington's tame poodle, even demanded that Russia change the Constitution so that Britain could, at its first request, receive any Russian citizen for trial on its territory.
In March 2013, Berezovsky was found hanged in his own castle in the UK. Two months before his death, he wrote a personal letter of repentance to Vladimir Putin, and on the eve of his death he allegedly gave an interview to Forbes magazine, in which he stated that he had revised his views on the West and wanted to return to Russia. The British did not doubt for a minute that suicide had occurred.
In March 2018, in London, former GRU Colonel Skripal, who worked for British intelligence, was exposed, served time in Russia, and has been quietly and unnoticed for eight years now, poisoned with the chemical warfare agent Novichok, from the family of toxic substances of the same name once developed in the USSR. living in England. His daughter suffered along with him. So far, doctors and the developer of this combat agent living in the United States claim that even if those poisoned survive, they will not return to normal life.
This time the investigation doesn't even begin. British Prime Minister Theresa May immediately states that the blame lies with Russia. An ultimatum is put forward to Moscow, and after Russia actually ignores it, inviting Britain to adhere to the norms international law, London follows the pattern of the “Litvinenko case”. The expulsion of diplomats, the freezing of relations, the accusation that Russia used weapons on British territory and, under this sauce, an attempt to involve NATO in the anti-Russian campaign. The attempt was unsuccessful. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization quietly moved away from the topic, promising London that if it really wanted to, it could hold consultations in accordance with Article 4 of the Washington Treaty (that is, talk about nothing). But if on the second day after the start of the scandal, the US had not removed Secretary of State Tillerson, who clearly supported London, then it is unknown how the Alliance would have behaved under the joint pressure of London and Washington, with guaranteed hysterical jumps of at least half of the Eastern European limitrophes.
May's ultimatum had not yet expired when the body of Berezovsky's associate Nikolai Glushkov was found in London, seemingly with signs of strangulation. Russia has not yet been charged with this death. At least enough time has passed. In the Skripal case, two days were enough for the British Prime Minister to fully “investigate” the case. But there’s a problem with Glushkov. Maybe he, like Berezovsky, “hanged himself.”
What immediately catches your eye? The British are in no hurry to hang strangled people from the FSB/GRU. Apparently they think that they don’t know how to strangle enemies in Russia. But, according to London, all Russian intelligence services (the FSB was accused in the Litvinenko case, the GRU in the Skripal case) use exclusively substances that can be safely classified as weapons of mass destruction to eliminate their former and long-useless employees. They cannot be used selectively, they pose a threat to the population of the metropolis and, most importantly, they have a clear “Russian trace”.
Polonium is produced in an extremely limited number of states. Russia is one of the main producers. It is true that the United States also does not experience a shortage of polonium. “Novichok” was developed in the USSR, but the fact that the laboratory was located in Uzbekistan was taken to the USA in the early 90s and the developer of the bottom combat agent lives there is nothing. Everyone knows how decent the Americans are, you don’t even need to ask them and it’s so clear that they wouldn’t hurt a fly, why would they kill a person.
So, the British establishment and the media believe that the Russian special services (and all of them) are exclusively engaged in the elimination of defectors who have gone into circulation and are of no use to anyone either in Russia or, most importantly, in the West. Moreover, they try to do this in a way that is as noticeable and dangerous as possible for others, using substances that can be classified as weapons of mass destruction. Substances must meet two more parameters: they must leave traces that cannot be confused with anything (in the case of polonium, the trace had to last for weeks), and also have a clear Russian connection. So that no one doubts that this is exactly “ long arm Moscow” got to those “who chose freedom.”
It turns out somehow strange. Veterans of the NKVD, MGB, and KGB are still alive in Russia, who worked in those days when the USSR actually eliminated its enemies abroad, and kidnapped some directly from Paris. Then they killed in various ways, someone was given an ice pick, someone was given exploding candy, someone was sprayed with poison in the face, someone was shot at. The main thing is that no one has ever been able to prove that this was the work of the Soviet secret services. And here, there is no continuity. So many traces, such reasons for a scandal!
Irony aside, the British are well aware of all the costs of their provocations. They know that we know that it is they themselves who are carrying out all these murders using weapons of mass destruction. Moreover, after the “Litvinenko case” they have no illusions about the effectiveness of pressure on Russia. They can introduce additional restrictions of a diplomatic, economic, political nature even without killings: within the framework of the Western sanctions policy tied to the Ukrainian crisis. They also have no doubts about the possibility of military pressure. It was not for nothing that the Americans were shown new types of Russian weapons and promised to sink their destroyers if they fired at Damascus or other places in Syria where there are Russian military or civilian personnel. To prove in such a complicated way Russia’s “guilt” in the supposedly carried out by Damascus chemical attacks there is no need for opposition either. It’s enough to simply state this, and if someone doesn’t want to take the “gentlemen” at their word, then they can bring a couple of former Soviet shells from Libya.
Moreover, they undermine the foundations of the existence of the Russian opposition. Previously, every “fighter against the regime” in Russia knew that if he had real problems of a criminal nature, he would calmly go to London, live there on a pension and write books about “the crimes of the Kremlin, from ancient times to the present day.” Now the smartest people are beginning to understand that in London they will either have to be useful to the British intelligence services all their lives, and this is not given to everyone, or your lifeless carcass will be useful. Moreover, judging by the manner in which the murders are carried out, you will die long and painfully, but if you survive, you will become a vegetable.
Finally, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to wonder how it is that Russian agents are driving around the British capital back and forth with polonium and Novichok? Where are the British intelligence services looking? How did they cross the border? If they can, then tomorrow some jihadist will easily synthesize sarin in any quantity in his apartment somewhere on Oxford Street, and the intelligence services and police of the kingdom will only find out about this when a gas cloud covers London.
Sooner or later, the population will start asking these questions. Moreover, the British press has been buzzing all the ears of the subjects of the crown about the dangers of the substances used by the “insidious Russians”.
That is, there are no advantages, but the costs are huge and the further, the more. The pragmatic Englishmen have not really gone crazy. Of course they didn't get off. It’s just that London has been moving in the same harness with Washington for too long. He even began leaving the EU when the United States decided to sacrifice Europe (sacrifice economically) to save itself. To avoid sinking with the EU, Britain decided to abandon the doomed ship. But then it turned out that the EU is quite successfully resisting the United States, is looking at Russia not without hope and is studying its proposals for cooperation more and more closely. America at this time, officially unformed, but no less effectively operating Russian-Chinese and Russian-Iranian-Syrian alliances, with Turkey increasingly adjacent, are being forced out of the Middle East, from North Africa, from Eurasia in general and even from the western Pacific.
The prospects are grim. You can’t retreat; the economy will collapse. It is impossible to fight - Russian military developments and the general state of the armed forces of Russia, China and Iran guarantee defeat to any aggressor, especially since there is confusion and vacillation in NATO. It is unknown who will be on whose side when the hour “X” comes. We have to somehow get out and negotiate. But there are no arguments to defend your request position.
This is how arguments are created. This time, in terms of the level of its statements, London has approached the very brink beyond which it is necessary to declare war. In fact, Britain repeated the Ukrainian trick in a more civilized form, accusing Russia of aggression, but without starting military action.
This is very dangerous situation. At the same time, the British know that in Russia politicians are responsible and are not eager for confrontation at any cost. The British (together with the Americans) expect to receive significant geopolitical concessions in exchange for the removal of their own artificially created tension.
Well, it doesn’t hurt to want. But the adventurous policy of Washington and London, which has joined it, has already led to the fact that the United States has lost its hegemonic status over the past two decades, the EU has ceased to perceive them as an ally, and the European Union is entering into a cold relationship with Britain. economic war. A similar confrontation with the United States is not far off. Trump has already announced his protectionist program, which completely destroys the current global trading system. If he doesn't back down, and he won't, the EU will have no options. Trade and economic interests will literally push it into the same boat with Russia and China, even if for this it will be necessary to “lose” a couple of overly emotional limitrophes along the way.
Hysteria has never been an effective tool in politics. And London is now in hysterics. Decency has been thrown away, norms and forms are not respected, and the once prim and proper British politicians are behaving like a young petty criminal street urchin. I'm afraid that this condition can no longer be treated. It’s not the “squirrel” who has come. She is the one who refuses to leave. Because there is no way out.
