A Finger in Every Pie : Victor Bout and Igor Sechin connection

On 3 December 2007 a curious item appeared in the Russian media. It concerned Igor Ivanovich Sechin, a Russian political figure close to then President Vladimir Putin. Kommersant featured a quote from Oleg Shvartsman, head of the Financial-Industrial Group: "For us, the Party is represented by the power bloc headed by Igor Ivanovich [Sechin]." This statement was offered in response to a journalist's question about Shvartman's strategic task of velvet re-privatization. "Who set this task for you?" asked the journalist. Shvartsman's extraordinary answer slipped inadvertently from his post-Soviet lips: "The party! (laughing)." On 3 December 2007 a curious item appeared in the Russian media. It concerned Igor Ivanovich Sechin, a Russian political figure close to then President Vladimir Putin. Kommersant [2] featured a quote from Oleg Shvartsman, head of the Financial-Industrial Group: "For us, the Party is represented by the power bloc headed by Igor Ivanovich [Sechin]." This statement was offered in response to a journalist's question about Shvartman's strategic task of velvet re-privatization. "Who set this task for you?" asked the journalist. Shvartsman's extraordinary answer slipped inadvertently from his post-Soviet lips: "The party! (laughing)."

That's right, he said "the party." (In the original Russian [3] he used the word Партия!) In every place within this story, the word "партии" or "партия" is capitalized when referring to a shadowy entity issuing tasks from behind the scenes. When an insignificant political party is mentioned, the word is not capitalized, so Shvartsman's laugh cannot be mistaken: Партия refers to one thing, without any chance of confusion. There can only be one "Party" operating secretly behind the scenes, and that is the Communist Party (коммунистическая партия). In other words, Comrade Shvartsman was openly referring to the ongoing dominion of the Communist Party Soviet Union and its directives.

The correctness of the above interpretation is rendered indisputable by the fact that Kommersant made the "Party" quote into the article's headline. "Aha!" says Kommersant. "The Party lifts its head and winks at us!" There is no problem with this (for the Kremlin), because the West will never notice references to ongoing Communist Party control in Russia. The White House is too busy to notice. The CIA is far gone, manipulated by double agents. The foreign policy experts are advancing their careers by expounding upon more plausible themes. Even the so-called "conservative" Westerners have become useful idiots. In this case, as in most others, deception succeeds because the victim of deception wishes to be deceived. That is all-in-all sufficient. As Lenin once said: "Tell theWest what they want to hear."

Fast forward to the present, to a related mystery. In Thailand another agent of "the Party" is in the news. His name is Victor Bout (pronounced boot). He has been languishing in jail, wanted by U.S. authorities. In fact, he is soon to be extradited. But the Russian authorities don't want him to fall into American hands. Perhaps this has to do with his ties to al Qaeda and his work as a KGB spy. In Thailand it is alleged that American intelligence suspects Bout of involvement in the September 11, 2001 terrorist onslaught. Consequently, Washington wants to grab and interrogate Bout. Because Moscow has something to hide, they desperately want to free him. According to Dmitry Sidorov, writing at forbes.com [4], "The Kremlin seems dead serious about Bout. The mere thought that he could be responding to prosecutors' questions in New York apparently sends shivers down the spines of some high-ranking Russian government officials. One of these is ... Igor Sechin...."

Aha! Igor Ivanovich appears once more, presumably in the context of yet another strategic task. What was Shvartsman's phrase? "For us, the Party is represented by the power bloc headed by Igor Ivanovich [Sechin]." In his Forbes piece, Sidorov describes Sechin as having "deep roots in the GRU (Russian military intelligence) that go back to Angola and Mozambique, where he worked officially as an interpreter...." Does anyone remember the assassination of Mozambique's president, Samora Machel [5], by way of a plane crash in 1986? (See also, the more recent elimination of Polish President Lech Kaczyński [6].) If only some new crash could be devised. It would be terribly inconvenient if Bout reached America as a prisoner bound for interrogation by the Justice Department and the FBI. It is only obvious that he knows something. Why would the Russian foreign minister look so upset? As Sidorov pointed out, "It is hard to imagine the current regime in Moscow would allow anyone [like Bout] to make hundreds of millions of dollars without a nod, if not a cover, when it comes to sensitive business." And from what we know, Igor Ivanovich Sechin was up to his neck in this business -- which involved weapons smuggling to Communist guerrillas in Latin America and to Islamic terrorists in the Middle East.

To get a clearer picture of Sechin's role in Latin America as it relates to "the Party" and its many strategic tasks: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claims that his country's nuclear program was Igor Sechin's idea. Sechin even negotiated weapons sales to the emerging Communist dictator, as well as nuclear technology transfers. In 2009 Sechin negotiated an oil deal with Cuba, allowing Russia to become involved in deep-water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. How prescient! How omnipresent!

One last set of revealing items: In 2008 Igor Ivanovich Sechin negotiated with the BP oil company, which has since fallen on hard times. We should not be surprised to learn that Sechin is an expert in "the economic evaluation of investment projects of transit of oil and petroleum products." He is also the chairman of the board of directors of a leading Russian oil company, and Russia's top energy official. He is also considered the leader of Russia's Siloviki power bloc, which consists of politicians from the security and military services. But most of all, as Comrade Shvartsman revealed: "For us, the Party is represented by the power bloc headed by Igor Ivanovich [Sechin]."

[2] english: http://www.kommersant.com/p831089/r_530/Oleg_Shvartsman_discloses_his_companys_relations_with_power_ministries/

[4] http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/15/victor-bout-kremlin-opinions-contributors-dmitry-sidorov.html

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samora_Machel#The_fatal_aircrash_and_investigations

[6] http://bigpeace.com/stzu/2010/08/07/polish-airplane-crash-cover-up/#more-13933

As was written above:
“If only some new crash could be devised”

so here:

US ambassador’s to Thailand daughter, 17, dies in NYC fall

By COLLEEN LONG (AP) – 3 hours ago
NEW YORK — The 17-year-old daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Thailand slipped off her shoes and climbed out onto a window ledge Friday at a Manhattan apartment before plummeting more than 20 stories to her death, police said.
Nicole John fell at about 4:15 a.m. from the top floor of the 25-story Herald Towers, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Her body landed on a third-floor ledge, a camera nearby. It’s not clear whether she had been trying to take a photo when she died, and her death is believed to be accidental.
The girl’s father, Eric John, was appointed U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand in 2007.
John, an incoming freshman at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, was thought to have been drinking. Ilan Nassimi, 25, who rents the apartment, was arrested later Friday on charges of giving alcohol to a minor, police said. He was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan court and it wasn’t clear if he had a lawyer.
Police say John had been out with partying with friends at Tenjune, a club in the trendy Meatpacking District, before the group headed back to Nassimi’s apartment at West 34th Street near the Empire State Building at around 2 a.m. Friday.
Police believe the apartment might have been cleaned up by the time investigators arrived, but they think about a dozen people were there and had been drinking.
The medical examiner was scheduled to perform an autopsy and toxicology tests Saturday.
John had graduated from the International School in Bangkok and had a fake Brazilian ID that gave her age as 23 or 24.
Pages from a blog believed to be hers portray a smart, artistic young girl with a wild streak, eager to begin college. “Reading. Partying. Lucid dreaming. Night terrors. Deep eyes. Good food” she wrote as a description of herself on a Tumblr site, a hodgepodge of quotes, photos and journal entries.
“My childhood is over but that doesn’t mean playtime is,” another entry reads.
In one entry a week ago she references her Brazilian ID, saying she’d never been caught using it. “It’s really good, it’s never been rejected,” she wrote.
In other entries, she posits on what her life will be like after college and how she’s looking forward to returning to New York.
“I go back August 17th. I love Bangkok, but it’s so toxic for my mind,” she wrote. “I’m not happy here; not like I am in NYC. Oh well, there’s downs and then there’s ups. Just gotta get up outta that gutter.”
Kristin Kneedler, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, said they were just getting details and had no immediate comment.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the John family during this very difficult time,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. “We ask that you respect their privacy as they mourn the tragic loss of their daughter Nicole.”
An aunt reached in Kentucky said the family had no comments beyond what the state department said.
Parsons said in a statement that the university’s management team was working to provide comfort and support to those affected by John’s death.
“Losing a member of the community is extremely difficult for students, faculty and staff just as we begin a new semester,” the school said in a statement.
The building manager was called by someone in the apartment who noticed John wasn’t there, and he found John’s body and called authorities, police said. Witnesses on the street also called 911.

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