Mikhail Trepashkin, a Moscow-based journalist and former FSB colonel, tells in an interview in the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that the FSB unit specialized in assassinations is still working. Trepashkin's colleague Aleksandr Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London in 2006, has revealed that  he was employed by this special unit.



"This unit still exists, and the same people are still working there", Trepashkin told the newspaper.



In a book published together with Juri Felshtinsky, Litvinenko told that he had been a member of this secret assassination unit. The unit belonged to URPO, the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Organizations, which is a secret organization as well. The Directorate was said to be abolished after the revelations of Litvinenko and Trepashkin.



Trepashkin was jailed 2003-2007 due to illegal possession of a handgun and later also for revelation of state secrecies. Many human rights organizations appealed at that time for Trepashkin. Allegedly, one reason for the detention of Trepashkin was his investigations in the Moscow Bombings in 1999, which seem to have been orchestrated by FSB itself in order to establish Casus Belli, a reason to start a war.



Litvinenko was poisoned in London by radioactive polonium. In their investigations, Scotland Yard wanted to interview Trepashkin but the request was denied by Russian authorities. The main suspect of the murder, Andrey Lugovoy, also refused interrogations. Lugovoy is nowadays a member of the State Duma of Russia. The Duma has also another member with an internatonal warrant for murder, Adam Demilkhanov, who is suspect of the murder of Sulim Yamadaev in March 2009..



According to Trepashkin, the assassination unit existed already in 1996. Trepashkin also tells that the unit reports directly to the Chief of FSB. Vladimir Putin was Chief of FSB before Yeltsin appointed him his successor as President of the Russian Federation.



According to a law enforced in 2006, Russia may commit "counter-terrorist actions" also abroad. Predominantly, this stands for a  licence to kill people in opposition to the present rulers of the Kremlin.



"Members of this unit have been visiting Boston, in order to find out Felshtinsky's dwelling place and his movements", Trepashkin tells. About his own security he says that he "is as afraid as anybody else".



Trepashkin took part in a seminar organized by Finrosforum, the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum. The annual seminar discussed this year political prisoners in Russia, the situation of ethnic and religious minorities and issues connected to the colonization of North Caucasus. Among the speakers were Fatima Tlisova, who gave a speech about the Circassian Genocide, and Islam Tumsoev who spoke about the North Caucasian struggle against the invaders during last centuries and still today.



Mikael Storsjö

Helsinki
Kavkaz Center