Another Beslan Casualty?
About three weeks ago, a fisherman found the decomposing remains of Russian Major General Yuri Ivanov, 52, washed up on the beach along the Turkish Mediterranean coast.
Ivanov was the deputy director of the GRU, the Russian spy agency which is largely comparable to the American CIA. Consequently, Ivanov had his finger on the pulse of Russia’s worldwide espionage operations.
The circumstances seem to indicate that Ivanoz’s death was quite possibly a homicide but official sources claim Ivanov merely drowned while swimming. Unexplained is the fact that his security detail was nowhere to be found when he went “swimming” and no one seemed to miss him before he was found.
. . . .
Also, Ivanov was part of the high-level investigation team that studied the 2004 Beslan massacre and virtually alone in claiming that the Russian government was whitewashing the whole violent and deadly episode as something other than obvious terrorism. Ivanov and Yuri Savelyev contended that the Kremlin’s official version of the events at Beslan was a fabrication.
Ivanov implicated Putin by name as the person who ordered that RPGs be fired at the school, contrary to the official blame being put on the Chechen terrorists. The exploding grenades started the bloody end to the massacre.
Passing strange, isn’t it, how those who cross Putin and/or the FSB tend to suffer deaths premature even by the appalling standards of Russian men? (But hey, maybe Ivanov was just swimming drunk to escape the heat.) Savelyev should be sweating right now–if he hasn’t been for the last 5 plus years.
Note that Ivanov was GRU, and the GRU and the FSB (and before it, the KGB) have been a long history of vicious rivalry. Moreover, the FSB was in charge of the Beslan operation. Finally, Putin is ex-FSB/KGB. A very combustible mix.
Perhaps the only surprise is that Ivanov lived as long as he did.
Commentor Oleg Vishii posted the article, and added a story about Stalin’s policy of eliminating threats. This, plus the Ivanov episode, brings to mind a famous Stalin remark: “Death solves all problems. No man, no problem.”
Note: This is a reconstruction of a post written on Monday, 6 September. It, and another post, were lost as result of a server crash. I doubt I’ll redo the other post (about Obama’s Labor Day speech). About 20 comments were also lost, for which I apologize to the commentors.
Damn, now I know why my brilliant comment from yesterday can’t be found. 🙁 Meanwhile, the story above is just perfectly Russian regardless of how it happened or who was/was not involved.
Comment by Howard Roark — September 7, 2010 @ 4:54 pm
I’m sorry, Howard. I’m also pretty p*ssed this happened. Hopefully it’s a one off.
Fortunately, I did see it and read it. It was very informative. Depressing, but informative.
The agreement between Russia and Israel about military cooperation is signed.
Here is the link.
http://www.defencetalk.com/russia-boosts-military-cooperation-with-israel-28591/
A few months ago I’ve predicted that Putin will not waste any opportunity to make Russia stronger while O’Bum-in-chief is in the office. Now Russia is blackmailing Israel: “Give us modern military technology, or else we will sell weapons to Iran and Syria.”
Israel is helpless, and has no choice but to seek protection from Russia. America can not protect Israel.
This is no small deal. Israel is morphing into an ally of Russia.
The next target is the NATO alliance itself. I think by 2012 quite a few NATO countries will defect to Russia, and America will be kicked out of Europe.
This bum O’Bum should be taken out before it’s too late.
Well, I think it’s already too late.
Israel is just the first rat to jump the ship.
Soon we will see more.
Comment by Michael Vilkin — September 7, 2010 @ 7:21 pm
Stalin never said that. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin#Misattributed
Comment by So? — September 7, 2010 @ 8:48 pm
Well, I am not sure that the late General Yuri Ivanov of GRU and Yuri Ivanov of Beslan investigation are the same person.
After all, Yuri Ivanov would be a quite common Russian name. In case of the GRU man, it may not even be a real one.
Comment by LL — September 7, 2010 @ 9:14 pm
I also have doubts- why GRU would have investigate Beslan tragedy?
This story may be very russian as Howard Roark says, or very Kafkaesque if you prefer- but it may as well be not true.
Comment by a.russian — September 7, 2010 @ 11:11 pm
Glad it was informative, (and glad you saw it, even if it sucked, at least I knew someone read it!) However, I can’t take the credit for it being depressing. That kinda takes care of itself in regard to this topic.
Comment by Howard Roark — September 7, 2010 @ 11:12 pm
The GRU could have investigated the tragedy for two reasons, one in order to provide an objective view of what actually happened, or given the intense rivalry (often descending into violence) between the GRU and the KGB/FSB they were out to dig up as much dirt as possible on the all to obvious stupidity and incompetence of their rivals in slaughtering Ossetian school kids.
It is interesting to note that people are surprised by the Russians using such crude “brute force and ignorance” tactics while storming a school full of hostages.
Nobody should be surprised by this. The Russian elite care little for the right to life of ethnic Russians, and not at all for the ethnic minorities such as Ossetians.
It is interesting to note that the Russians killed more Ossetians at Beslan (over 300) than civilians died in Tshkinvali during a war (168).
It is also interesting to note the overwhelming number of lies spouted by Russia during the war, followed by ethnic cleansing, a time honored Russian tactic.
Comment by Andrew — September 8, 2010 @ 12:36 am