A Meta-Group Managing Drugs, Violence, and the State
The Role of Anton Surikov: The Dunlop and Yasenev Versions / Part VII
Peter Dale Scott - As we have seen, Dunlop describes Anton Surikov, the organizer of the Beaulieu meeting, as “a retired officer in the GRU.” He fails to quote from his source Yasenev’s description of Surikov:
Anton Victorovich Surikov (b. 1961). Presents himself as political scientist. Responsible for informational and political projects. Actively publishes in press. Some of his publications resemble ciphered directives to the elements in Russian special services disloyal to President Vladimir Putin. His other articles contain political messages intended for abroad. Surikov has contacts with F[ritz] Ermarth, former leading CIA analyst of the USSR and Russia, now in the Nixon Foundation…. (1)
Both Boris Kagarlitsky’s essay and Yasenev’s memo, taken from intelligence files, talk about Surikov, but from opposing perspectives. Kagarlitsky, a longtime dissident and foe of Putin, presented Surikov’s presence at the Beaulieu meeting as a venue for Kremlin-instigated violence, designed to restore the Kremlin’s popularity before the coming election. Yasenev’s memo sees Surikov as part of an on-going effort to destabilize Russia, and weaken the Kremlin.
9/11 & American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out, edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott, is scheduled to appear in August 2006
Kagarlitsky (and after him Dunlop) say almost nothing about Surikov, other than to refer to his past years with Russian military intelligence, the GRU. (2) However Yasenev’s memo in December 2004 links Surikov, not to the government or Kremlin, but (through Alexei Kondaurov) to the sphere of the man who by that time had emerged as America’s best friend and Putin’s most powerful enemy in Russia, the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Yukos Oil. (The Kondaurov-Khodorkovsky connection is abundantly documented: both men freely admit it.)
Forbes magazine, which underwrote Klebnikov’s damning account of Berezovsky, wrote on March 18, 2002 that Khodorkovsky appeared “to be the West’s best friend” in Russia. According to PBS in 2003, Khodorkovsky’s firm Menatep shared business interests with the western investment firms Global Asset Management, the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group and AIG Capital Partners. In addition
He frequently travels to the United States. He reportedly dined with Condoleezza Rice last year and recently was a guest at Herb Allen’s Idaho ranch, along with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and other luminaries, for an annual telecommunications executives meeting. (3)
Quoting from an anti-Yeltsin essay of May 1999 by Surikov in Versiya, the American right-wing Jamestown Foundation agreed with Yasenev (against Kagarlitsky and Dunlop) that “Surikov is clearly in the camp of Yeltsin’s opponents.” (4) More recently Surikov has also shown himself to be anti-Putin, criticizing Putin’s “obvious inability … to struggle against terrorism effectively.” (5)
Furthermore Surikov had western support in his opposition to government corruption under Yeltsin. The Centre for Defence Studies, a British think-tank at King’s College, London, published two small books by Surikov, including one entitled Crime in Russia: the international implications. (6) According to his webpage at Kagarlitsky’s IPROG website, Surikov spent the year 1994 at the Centre for Defence Studies. (7) Audrius Butkevicius of Far West is said to have spent the year there with him.
As for Yasenev’s allegations that “Surikov has contacts with F. Ermarth,” Surikov when questioned about this admitted it frankly: “I am personally acquainted with Mr. Ermarth as political scientist since 1996. It’s well known by many people and we never hid this fact.” (8) In saying this, Surikov was admitting to a CIA connection, however casual: Ermarth, a senior officer who twice served on the National Security Council, did not retire from the CIA until 1998. (9)
Above all, Kagarlitsky is silent about the charge which has since aroused controversy in the Russian media: Surikov’s supposed involvement with “a group of renegade Soviet secret service officers who are allegedly involved in international drug trafficking and have ties with Western and Saudi security apparatus.” (10)
It would be interesting to learn at what point Kagarlitsky first met Surikov, and whether Surikov was in fact the source for Kagarlitsky’s article about the meeting in southern France. Today the two men are close, and serve together at the Moscow Institute for the Study of Globalization (IPROG).
Footnotes
1: Yasenev, “Rossiyu zhdet,” emphasis added.
2: To quote Dunlop, “Kagarlitskii also notes: `During Primakov’s time, Surikov worked on the staff of the government of the Russian Federation. Despite this fact, he also developed regular work relations with Voloshin’s people. It seems therefore quite likely that Surikov and Voloshin were personally acquainted’” (Dunlop, “Storm in Moscow,” 44-45).
3: PBS, Frontline, October 2003,. Cf. Menatep Press Release of 4/30/02.
4: “Former Primakov Official Attacks High-Level Corruption and Yeltsin’s Plans in 2000,” Jamestown Foundation Monitor, 5/25/99, JRL 3306.
5: Chechen Press, 5/28/05
6: Anton Surikov, Crime in Russia: the International Implications (London: Brassey's for the Centre for Defence Studies, University of London, 1995).
7: www.iprog.ru/cast/?id=8.
8: Letter of 9/17/05 to Oleg Grechenevsky. According to one 1999 article in Russia, Ermarth introduced Surikov to Steve Forbes who offered to help him participate in the project –together with Ermarth and UK Ambassador Sir Rodric Braithwaite –to reveal the ties between the Yeltsin Administration and Russian corruption. But this claim needs to be treated with extreme caution, given the false stories at the time linking Ermarth, Braithwaite, and Surikov to an imaginary joint campaign against Russian corruption. See The Electronic Telegraph (UK), 9/11/99, JRI #3493.
9: The two men had met in April 1996 at a Global International Security Seminar in Virginia Commersant (n.d). In an alleged transcript of a drug-related dialogue beween Sergei [Petrov] and a businessman, the latter says, “You’ve said Surikov was also a CIA man” See transcript of audio recorded conversation between businessman Gennady Nikolaevich (GN) with Sergei (S), which took place on September 29, 2003 in the Hotel Noga Hilton in Geneva.
10: Left Front Press Conference. Kagarlitsky was defended at the press conference by the former Yukos official Ilya Ponomarev, another IPROG member.
Part I: History and the Political Requirements of the Global Drug Traffic
Part II: The Meta-Group, West, and East
Part III: The Meta-Group, BCCI, and Adnan Khashoggi
Part IV: Dunlop’s Account of the Beaulieu Meeting’s Purpose: The “Russian 9/11” in 1999
Part V: Dunlop’s Redactions of His Source Yasenev
Part VI: The Khashoggi Villa Meeting, Kosovo, and the “Pristina Dash”
Part VII: The Role of Anton Surikov: The Dunlop and Yasenev Versions
Part VIII: Saidov, Surikov, Muslim Insurrectionism, and Drug Trafficking
Part IX: Allegations of Drug-Trafficking and Far West Ltd.
Part X: Far West Ltd, Halliburton, Diligence LLC, New Bridge, and Neil Bush
Part XI: The U.S. Contribution to the Afghan-Kosovo Drug Traffic.
Last Part XII: Concluding Remarks: Meta-Groups and Transpolitics.
Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is a poet, writer, and researcher.
Peter Dale Scott - As we have seen, Dunlop describes Anton Surikov, the organizer of the Beaulieu meeting, as “a retired officer in the GRU.” He fails to quote from his source Yasenev’s description of Surikov:Anton Victorovich Surikov (b. 1961). Presents himself as political scientist. Responsible for informational and political projects. Actively publishes in press. Some of his publications resemble ciphered directives to the elements in Russian special services disloyal to President Vladimir Putin. His other articles contain political messages intended for abroad. Surikov has contacts with F[ritz] Ermarth, former leading CIA analyst of the USSR and Russia, now in the Nixon Foundation…. (1)
Both Boris Kagarlitsky’s essay and Yasenev’s memo, taken from intelligence files, talk about Surikov, but from opposing perspectives. Kagarlitsky, a longtime dissident and foe of Putin, presented Surikov’s presence at the Beaulieu meeting as a venue for Kremlin-instigated violence, designed to restore the Kremlin’s popularity before the coming election. Yasenev’s memo sees Surikov as part of an on-going effort to destabilize Russia, and weaken the Kremlin.
9/11 & American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out, edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott, is scheduled to appear in August 2006
Kagarlitsky (and after him Dunlop) say almost nothing about Surikov, other than to refer to his past years with Russian military intelligence, the GRU. (2) However Yasenev’s memo in December 2004 links Surikov, not to the government or Kremlin, but (through Alexei Kondaurov) to the sphere of the man who by that time had emerged as America’s best friend and Putin’s most powerful enemy in Russia, the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Yukos Oil. (The Kondaurov-Khodorkovsky connection is abundantly documented: both men freely admit it.)
Forbes magazine, which underwrote Klebnikov’s damning account of Berezovsky, wrote on March 18, 2002 that Khodorkovsky appeared “to be the West’s best friend” in Russia. According to PBS in 2003, Khodorkovsky’s firm Menatep shared business interests with the western investment firms Global Asset Management, the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group and AIG Capital Partners. In addition
He frequently travels to the United States. He reportedly dined with Condoleezza Rice last year and recently was a guest at Herb Allen’s Idaho ranch, along with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and other luminaries, for an annual telecommunications executives meeting. (3)
Quoting from an anti-Yeltsin essay of May 1999 by Surikov in Versiya, the American right-wing Jamestown Foundation agreed with Yasenev (against Kagarlitsky and Dunlop) that “Surikov is clearly in the camp of Yeltsin’s opponents.” (4) More recently Surikov has also shown himself to be anti-Putin, criticizing Putin’s “obvious inability … to struggle against terrorism effectively.” (5)
Furthermore Surikov had western support in his opposition to government corruption under Yeltsin. The Centre for Defence Studies, a British think-tank at King’s College, London, published two small books by Surikov, including one entitled Crime in Russia: the international implications. (6) According to his webpage at Kagarlitsky’s IPROG website, Surikov spent the year 1994 at the Centre for Defence Studies. (7) Audrius Butkevicius of Far West is said to have spent the year there with him.
As for Yasenev’s allegations that “Surikov has contacts with F. Ermarth,” Surikov when questioned about this admitted it frankly: “I am personally acquainted with Mr. Ermarth as political scientist since 1996. It’s well known by many people and we never hid this fact.” (8) In saying this, Surikov was admitting to a CIA connection, however casual: Ermarth, a senior officer who twice served on the National Security Council, did not retire from the CIA until 1998. (9)
Above all, Kagarlitsky is silent about the charge which has since aroused controversy in the Russian media: Surikov’s supposed involvement with “a group of renegade Soviet secret service officers who are allegedly involved in international drug trafficking and have ties with Western and Saudi security apparatus.” (10)
It would be interesting to learn at what point Kagarlitsky first met Surikov, and whether Surikov was in fact the source for Kagarlitsky’s article about the meeting in southern France. Today the two men are close, and serve together at the Moscow Institute for the Study of Globalization (IPROG).
Footnotes1: Yasenev, “Rossiyu zhdet,” emphasis added.
2: To quote Dunlop, “Kagarlitskii also notes: `During Primakov’s time, Surikov worked on the staff of the government of the Russian Federation. Despite this fact, he also developed regular work relations with Voloshin’s people. It seems therefore quite likely that Surikov and Voloshin were personally acquainted’” (Dunlop, “Storm in Moscow,” 44-45).
3: PBS, Frontline, October 2003,. Cf. Menatep Press Release of 4/30/02.
4: “Former Primakov Official Attacks High-Level Corruption and Yeltsin’s Plans in 2000,” Jamestown Foundation Monitor, 5/25/99, JRL 3306.
5: Chechen Press, 5/28/05
6: Anton Surikov, Crime in Russia: the International Implications (London: Brassey's for the Centre for Defence Studies, University of London, 1995).
7: www.iprog.ru/cast/?id=8.
8: Letter of 9/17/05 to Oleg Grechenevsky. According to one 1999 article in Russia, Ermarth introduced Surikov to Steve Forbes who offered to help him participate in the project –together with Ermarth and UK Ambassador Sir Rodric Braithwaite –to reveal the ties between the Yeltsin Administration and Russian corruption. But this claim needs to be treated with extreme caution, given the false stories at the time linking Ermarth, Braithwaite, and Surikov to an imaginary joint campaign against Russian corruption. See The Electronic Telegraph (UK), 9/11/99, JRI #3493.
9: The two men had met in April 1996 at a Global International Security Seminar in Virginia Commersant (n.d). In an alleged transcript of a drug-related dialogue beween Sergei [Petrov] and a businessman, the latter says, “You’ve said Surikov was also a CIA man” See transcript of audio recorded conversation between businessman Gennady Nikolaevich (GN) with Sergei (S), which took place on September 29, 2003 in the Hotel Noga Hilton in Geneva.
10: Left Front Press Conference. Kagarlitsky was defended at the press conference by the former Yukos official Ilya Ponomarev, another IPROG member.
Part I: History and the Political Requirements of the Global Drug TrafficPart II: The Meta-Group, West, and EastPart III: The Meta-Group, BCCI, and Adnan KhashoggiPart IV: Dunlop’s Account of the Beaulieu Meeting’s Purpose: The “Russian 9/11” in 1999Part V: Dunlop’s Redactions of His Source YasenevPart VI: The Khashoggi Villa Meeting, Kosovo, and the “Pristina Dash”Part VII: The Role of Anton Surikov: The Dunlop and Yasenev VersionsPart VIII: Saidov, Surikov, Muslim Insurrectionism, and Drug TraffickingPart IX: Allegations of Drug-Trafficking and Far West Ltd.Part X: Far West Ltd, Halliburton, Diligence LLC, New Bridge, and Neil BushPart XI: The U.S. Contribution to the Afghan-Kosovo Drug Traffic. Last Part XII: Concluding Remarks: Meta-Groups and Transpolitics. Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is a poet, writer, and researcher. sfux - 4. Sep, 08:00 Article 9071x read
