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MOSCOW — The Russian lawyer who met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower in June 2016 on the premise that she would deliver damaging information about Hillary Clinton has long insisted she is a private attorney, not a Kremlin operative trying to meddle in the presidential election.But newly released emails show that in at least one instance two years earlier, the lawyer, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, worked hand in glove with Russia’s chief legal office to thwart a Justice Department civil fraud case against a well-connected Russian firm.Ms. Veselnitskaya also appears to have recanted her earlier denials of Russian government...

Nikolai Glushkov, a Russian exile who was a close friend of a noted critic of President Vladimir Putin, has died from an "unexplained" cause in London, police say. The Metropolitan Police says that its counterterrorism unit is handling the case "because of associations that the man is believed to have had." Glushkov, 68, was a close friend of Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a prominent critic of the Kremlin who was found dead in 2013. At the time, an inquiry found he had hanged himself — but Glushkov publicly disputed the idea that his friend and former business ally would have...

Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch found lying on his bathroom floor with a ligature around his neck, was in good spirits the night before his died and was looking forward to a holiday to Israel, according to his girlfriend. Katerina Sabirova, 23, said she did not believe he had killed himself and said that he sounded “better than usual” when she spoke to him. She said they were due to go to the Dead Sea three days later. A post-mortem conducted last month found that Mr Berezovsky's death was "consistent with hanging" and that there were no signs of violence...

Murder was not ruled out today after an inquest heard that exiled Russian Boris Berezovsky was found lying in his bathroom with a ligature around his neck. A piece of the same material around his throat was tied on to the shower rail above him, indicating he apparently hanged from the rail. But police told a coroner they still cannot rule out murder. Det Insp Mark Bissell said: “The results of the postmortem found that the cause of death was consistent with hanging. "The pathologist has found nothing to indicate a sign of struggle or third party involvement.” He added...

Oligarch Boris Berezovsky may have been killed by British spies from MI5 or MI6 to stop him leaking state secrets to the Russians, a leading supporter of Vladimir Putin argued today. Fears in the West that the tycoon was planning to make peace with the president and end his 13-year UK exile may have led to him being assassinated, Kremlin insider Sergei Markov has said. After falling out with Putin in 2000, the 67-year-old fled to Britain where he was later given political asylum.

He was a powerful Russian businessman whose falling-out with his government left him self-exiled in England. He blamed the Kremlin for the death of a former Russian spy who was poisoned by radioactive material. Now, Boris Berezovsky himself is dead. Police scouring the scene Sunday have found no sign so far of "third party involvement," a detective said. But details surrounding Berezovsky's death remain a mystery. Police say they haven't determined the cause. After a paramedic's radiation detector went off at the scene, investigators declared the area "safe and clear to work in," the Thames Valley Police said in a...

The Polonium Diversion At least a dozen people have been contaminated by the rare radioactive isotope Polonium 210. The list includes Alexander Litvinenko, the ex-Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB who died from a dose of Polonium 210 in London on November 23rd; Andrei Lugovoi, a former colleague of Litvinenko in the KGB, who met with Litvinenko at the Pine bar of the Millennium Hotel in London the day he became ill, November 1st; Dmitry Lugovoi, Lugovoi’s business associate, who also attended that November 1st meetings; 7 employees of the Millennium Hotel; Mario Scaramella, an Italian security consultant, who dined with...

The sudden death of an exiled Georgian billionaire may have been another "Alexander Litvinenko-style" murder, it is feared. A major crime squad is investigating the death of 52-year-old Badri Patarkatsishvili, whose body was found at his country mansion in Surrey at about 11pm last night. His family said he suffered a heart attack - but Surrey Police have launched an investigation to confirm the exact cause of death after reports of a plot to kill him. Sky News' home affairs correspondent Mark White said: "The police want to leave no stone uncovered. "In the light of Litvinenko's death in 2006...

AN ALLEGED attempt to kill a former Russian spy who defected to Britain was being investigated by police last night. Oleg Gordievsky was admitted to a hospital in Guildford after falling ill in November last year. And yesterday he claimed he had been poisoned with the highly toxic metal thallium in a botched assassination attempt. Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence during the 1980s, claims he was targeted by a Russian assassin who visited him at his safe house in Surrey. The 69-year-old was unconscious for 34 hours after falling ill last year and...

Russian espionage in UK 'at Cold War level' By David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent Last Updated: 1:11am BST 08/09/2007 Russia's espionage operation in Britain is operating at the level of the Cold War and involves about half of the staff accredited to its diplomatic missions in London, it has been claimed. Boris Berezovsky: an outspoken critic of Putin Their tasks range from seeking military and commercial secrets to monitoring Russian dissidents based in London, most notably Boris Berezovsky, the billionaire and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin. When Britain expelled four Russian diplomats in July - responding to Moscow's failure to...

A court on Tuesday issued a new arrest warrant for exiled tycoon and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, a move likely to increase tensions between Moscow and London over Britain's refusal to extradite him. The Basmanny District Court issued the warrant on charges that Berezovsky stole some $13 million from the SBS-Agro banking giant. The previously unknown case surfaced late last month. Berezovsky already is on trial in absentia for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars from the Russian flagship airline Aeroflot.

Belatedly, here’s my tuppence on Alastair Campbell’s diaries: he was a spin-doctor, an unprecedentedly successful one. Did anyone seriously expect him to be anything other than utterly calculating and ruthless? What stings people most, especially the press, about Campbell is how he managed to manipulate us so skilfully for so long. And yet it seems to be happening again, right under our noses. One of the most skilful media operators of recent times has turned Britain into the Gullible Man of Europe. He opens his mouth, we take what he says as gospel. Because of his enormous wealth – enormous...

LONDON (Reuters) - Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky said he is planning a revolution in Russia to topple President Vladimir Putin, in comments published on Friday. "We need to use force to change this regime," Berezovsky, who has received asylum in Britain, told the Guardian newspaper. "It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure." Asked if he was fomenting a revolution, he said: "You are absolutely correct." Berezovsky, a vocal critic of Putin, said he was in contact with members of Russia's political elite. He said these people -- who he...

Russia named its price yesterday for providing help in the investigation into the death by poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. It demanded that Britain hand over the enemies of President Putin who have been given asylum in London.The ultimatum came as Russian officials imposed strict limits on how Scotland Yard detectives will be allowed to operate as they began their investigation in Moscow. The strict conditions threatened to deepen the diplomatic rift between Moscow and London caused by the death last month by radioactive polonium-210 poisoning of Litvinenko. John Reid, the Home Secretary, pledged this week that no diplomatic obstacles would...

Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky has never made any secret of his loathing for President Vladimir Putin, but in an interview in his London exile the controversial tycoon went one step further with a vow to mount a coup. "President Putin violates the constitution and any violent action on the opposition's part is justified today, and that includes taking power by force, which is exactly what I am working at," the oligarch, looking vibrant despite five years in self-imposed exile, told AFP at his Piccadilly office. For the past 18 months, "we have been preparing to take power by force in...

Russia is responding to allegations Putin engineered the poisoning of former FSB Colonel Litvienko. I'm not a fan of Putin - or his regime - but the denials make more sense than the media's rush to judgment !

Spy death: Russian Lawmakers blame tycoon NDTV Correspondent Saturday, November 25, 2006 (Moscow): Pro-Kremlin lawmakers and state-controlled television networks point the finger for the death of former spy Alexander Litvinenko at a prominent Putin enemy in UK - tycoon Boris Berezovsky. Though Litvinenko's deathbed message has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin. Legislators seconded a top Putin aide's suggestion that Litvinenko's death in a London hospital on Thursday was part of a plot against Russia. They claimed that Berezovsky, a major critic whose asylum in Britain has enraged the Kremlin, was involved in the killing. "The death of Litvinenko for Russia,...

Poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died on Thursday in an intensive care ward, London's University College Hospital said. Litvinenko, a fierce critic of the Russian government, suffered a rapid deterioration in his health on Thursday, but doctors still were unable to determine the cause of his death, a spokesman said in a statement.

LONDON - A former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic who was poisoned three weeks ago was moved into intensive care Monday after his condition deteriorated, and his doctor said the toxin has attacked his bone marrow. Prominent Russian exiles claimed Litvinenko was poisoned at the behest of the Kremlin... Thallium causes hair loss and interferes with the cardiovascular and nervous systems, attacking the vital organs. Litvinenko's white cell count is down to nearly zero, said Dr. John Henry, a clinical toxicologist treating him. "It shows his bone marrow has been attacked and that he is susceptible to infection," Litvinenko, who...

As Vladimir Putin nears the end of what he insists will be his last term as president, analysts can not help but notice how different the country is today from the one he inherited from his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, in 2000. Most critics have focused on the way the Kremlin has increased its control of the media and eliminated regional gubernatorial elections. There have also been far-reaching changes in the ownership and management of several of the country's largest and richest energy and metals companies, however. Here, too, the Kremlin once again has begun to play a more intrusive role....