“Associated Press” (13.12.06): thrilling scoop on my “resurfacing”

 

(My letter to AP, Grenoble dd. 13.12.06)
REF: today’s interview by phone to Associated press
Dear Mr Boinet,
Quotations to my words to you are good & diligent, thank you.
Till now ”resurfaced” and “lying low” I may appear only for Associated Press (on behalf of whom I was first contacted only today by you) and various “paparazzi” knocking at my door. For example, AFP was in touch with me for over a week and repeatedly reported on me / cited me – it’s a pity the AP people do not read / quote colleagues from AFP!! )))
Everything else published by you today (highlighted in yellow)… is based on unfounded rumors reflected in the Western mass media and originating from KGB backed Russian papers which attacked me twice – in 1999 (2 anonymous articles) and 2002 (limited series of articles signed by 2 authors with clear FSB background).
So my warmest regards to the “French police” (+personally to the ”procureur de la Republique / Bonneville, France”  who, as you tried to persuade me by phone, “met me yesterday”) and their “believes” — as you put it here! ))))))))) Hopefully they’ll be able to finally (!!) locate me – now with AP / your help!! ))))))

Wishing you / AP further success and remaining eager to learn more news about me from AP,
Evgueni Limarev
(alias “Alps’ Submarine” ? )) )

---

 

Russian named in poisoning of Litvinenko resurfaces in France

GRENOBLE, France (AP)

A Russian reported missing in the complex poisoning case of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko resurfaced Wednesday, saying in an interview that he is lying low after receiving death threats.
British media have described Yevgeny Limarev, who lives in France, as a KGB defector. Reports also have said that it was he who told Italian security expert Mario Scaramella that Russian security veterans were plotting to kill Litvinenko and other Kremlin critics.
But Limarev disputed those accounts. He told The Associated Press that he has "never worked for any kind of secret service." He also said that he never gave Scaramella information that Russian veterans or others wanted Litvinenko dead.
"I am not directly implicated in this case," he said in the telephone interview. "In reality, I have nothing to do with the assassination of Alex Litvinenko."
Scaramella met with Litvinenko at a London sushi bar on Nov. 1. Media reports said Scaramella showed Litvinenko the supposed "hit list" from Limarev at that meeting. Litvinenko, a former Russian agent and a Kremlin critic, died three weeks later of poisoning from radioactive polonium-210.
French police said this week that Limarev had gone missing from his home in the French Alps with his wife and teenage daughter. But Limarev disputed that, saying, "I am not hiding from anybody."
He also asked, however, that his whereabouts not be made public. He said he recently received death threats, prompting him to file an official complaint with French authorities.
"That is one of the reasons why I am not responding to everybody who is knocking at my door or trying to find me in other ways," he said. "A lot of strange things have started to happen around me."
Limarev said he works as an independent consultant, specializing in Russian politics and security issues. He said Scaramella is among his clients.
Little is certain about his past. He worked at a sugar refinery in Belgorod in western Russia in the 1990s, and regional prosecutors opened two criminal cases against him for financial wrongdoing linked to the refinery in 1995 and 1996. It is unclear if the cases are still open.
Limarev later traveled to Switzerland and then to France. Russian media reported that he is in contact with tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who was also associated with Litvinenko and is one of the fiercest critics of today’s Russian leadership. Berezovsky made fortunes in shady privatization deals in the 1990s and was a key player in Boris Yeltsin’s Kremlin, but fell out of favor under current President Vladimir Putin.
>From their home in Cluses in the French Alps, Limarev and his wife operated a Web-based consultancy, Rusglobus.net, reportedly funded by Berezovsky.
Among staff members listed on the site are two names French police believe are Limarev’s aliases, Evgueni Kholodov and Evgueni Limanov.
Limarev said he believes that Litvinenko’s poisoning "was ordered and effected from Russia" although he did not believe that Putin "or any big chief of the government" was directly involved.
He said he believes that Litvinenko was killed to frighten Kremlin critics and "to distance Putin from the West."
"My personal belief is that they will not find those who ordered and effected the assassination," he said.

 

(+ before…)
Tue Dec 12 07:04:07 2006
MOSCOW (AP)

….. In a separate development Monday, a French police report obtained by The Associated Press said Yevgeny Limarev, who reportedly blew the whistle on Russian agents’ plans to target Litvinenko shortly before he was poisoned, has gone missing from his home in the French Alps with his wife and teenage daughter.
Mario Scaramella, an Italian security expert who met with Litvinenko at a London sushi bar later Nov. 1, reportedly said he had shown him materials from +Limarev+ suggesting Russian agents’ involvement in the October killing of Russian investigative journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya. The materials also reportedly indicated that the Honor and Dignity group of Russian security veterans was plotting to kill Litvinenko and other Kremlin critics.
The group’s head, Valentin Velichko, has rejected the allegations as nonsense.
Limarev, whom Russian newspaper Izvestia reported is close to self-exiled tycoon and Kremlin foe Boris Berezovsky, who lives in Britain, has not been seen in his home in Cluses, France, since Friday.

Associated Press writers Simone Utler in Hamburg, Germany, and Thierry Boinet in Grenoble, France, contributed to this report.