Litwin
Platinum Member
Just like the maskal GRU assassins sent to Salisbury, Sokolov's "Russian" passport is Kremlin-protected from scrutiny and his employer phone number is that of a GRU company.
"/27/19
A paper trail linked to the suspect in the killing of a Georgian citizen in Berlin suggests Russia provided “active support” to the suspect, according to an international team of investigators. Germany last month arrested a man who goes by the name Vadim Sokolov on suspicion of killing Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who fought alongside anti-Moscow separatists in Chechnya. Sokolov allegedly received a Russian passport, a French visa and traveled to Europe within a month, according to information obtained jointly by the German weekly Der Spiegel, the Russian investigative site The Insider and the U.K.-based investigative outfit Bellingcat. The outlets’ joint report published Friday provides “overwhelming evidence that the arrested assassin acted with the full support of the Russian state,” Bellingcat said. The team of outlets has obtained a copy of Sokolov’s still-active tax file, which was first opened weeks before he received his passport. The tax file, which Sokolov would need to show proof of employment to receive an EU visa, contained a 2015 Russian passport that raised another flag for Bellingcat.
A real-time passport database used by Bellingcat’s unnamed source marked Sokolov as a “person protected by law…To obtain this file, contact an administrator.” The restrictions apparently first appeared after the investigative outlet identified the suspects in last year’s poisoning of Russian defector Sergei Skripal as military intelligence officers. The phone number of Sokolov’s listed employer allegedly matches that of a Russian Defense Ministry-owned company, according to Bellingcat. The outlet had suggested earlier that Sokolov’s passport number linked him to Russian security services. The phone number of Sokolov’s listed employer allegedly matches that of a Russian Defense Ministry-owned company, according to Bellingcat. The outlet had suggested earlier that Sokolov’s passport number linked him to Russian security services. The New York Times cited a former antiterrorism center chief in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia as saying that a Russian handler believed to be an FSB officer was involved in a previous assassination attempt against Khangoshvili in 2006. Russia almost certainly has a covert program to eliminate former Chechen separatists, Bloomberg columnist Leonid Bershidsky wrote. In 1999, President Vladimir Putin famously promised to “ice” the separatists under any circumstances, “even in the toilet.” Moscow has been suspected of ordering killings of former Chechen fighters in Turkey, Austria, the United Arab Emirates and the U.K. Two Russian intelligence officers were convicted of killing a prominent Chechen in Qatar and later extradited to Moscow."
Joint Investigation Links Chechen Rebel’s Killing in Berlin to Russia
Bellingcat: New Evidence Links Russian State to Berlin Assassination
"/27/19
A paper trail linked to the suspect in the killing of a Georgian citizen in Berlin suggests Russia provided “active support” to the suspect, according to an international team of investigators. Germany last month arrested a man who goes by the name Vadim Sokolov on suspicion of killing Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who fought alongside anti-Moscow separatists in Chechnya. Sokolov allegedly received a Russian passport, a French visa and traveled to Europe within a month, according to information obtained jointly by the German weekly Der Spiegel, the Russian investigative site The Insider and the U.K.-based investigative outfit Bellingcat. The outlets’ joint report published Friday provides “overwhelming evidence that the arrested assassin acted with the full support of the Russian state,” Bellingcat said. The team of outlets has obtained a copy of Sokolov’s still-active tax file, which was first opened weeks before he received his passport. The tax file, which Sokolov would need to show proof of employment to receive an EU visa, contained a 2015 Russian passport that raised another flag for Bellingcat.
A real-time passport database used by Bellingcat’s unnamed source marked Sokolov as a “person protected by law…To obtain this file, contact an administrator.” The restrictions apparently first appeared after the investigative outlet identified the suspects in last year’s poisoning of Russian defector Sergei Skripal as military intelligence officers. The phone number of Sokolov’s listed employer allegedly matches that of a Russian Defense Ministry-owned company, according to Bellingcat. The outlet had suggested earlier that Sokolov’s passport number linked him to Russian security services. The phone number of Sokolov’s listed employer allegedly matches that of a Russian Defense Ministry-owned company, according to Bellingcat. The outlet had suggested earlier that Sokolov’s passport number linked him to Russian security services. The New York Times cited a former antiterrorism center chief in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia as saying that a Russian handler believed to be an FSB officer was involved in a previous assassination attempt against Khangoshvili in 2006. Russia almost certainly has a covert program to eliminate former Chechen separatists, Bloomberg columnist Leonid Bershidsky wrote. In 1999, President Vladimir Putin famously promised to “ice” the separatists under any circumstances, “even in the toilet.” Moscow has been suspected of ordering killings of former Chechen fighters in Turkey, Austria, the United Arab Emirates and the U.K. Two Russian intelligence officers were convicted of killing a prominent Chechen in Qatar and later extradited to Moscow."
Joint Investigation Links Chechen Rebel’s Killing in Berlin to Russia
Bellingcat: New Evidence Links Russian State to Berlin Assassination
