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Gangster state Russia - Russia considers biggest population redistribution since Stalin

Note: This would be very significant because you can bet China would try to move into the Eastern territories.  They are  already pushing right up against the borders by shifting population there. See Parag Khana's  The second world. RH Telegraph Russia considers biggest population redistribution since Stalin The Kremlin is considering pushing ahead with the biggest geographical redistribution of its population  since Josef Stalin's forced deportations of entire nationalities in the 1940s. Moscow is the largest urban centre in Russia Photo: ALAMY By Andrew Osborn in Moscow 5:57PM GMT 16 Nov 2010 Under the plans, which were leaked to the daily Vedomosti newspaper, the majority of Russia's 141  million-strong population would be concentrated in just twenty urban centres rather than sparsely  spread out over one fifth of the earth's surface as is now the case. At the moment, ninety per cent of Russia's towns are relatively small with a population of 100,000  people or less, many of them in remote locations. The leaked plan said such places had "no future"  and were not worth developing. Instead, it proposed relocating people to twenty giant agglomerations where Russia's main natural resources  such as oil and gas were located. Unlike in Stalin's day, when people were forced to move at gunpoint on the  often spurious grounds that they were 'enemies of the people' or Nazi collaborators, relocating would be  optional and encouraged on economic grounds alone. Much of rural Russia is dying as young people move to towns and cities anyway and entire Soviet-era settlements  which were built around just one or two factories are no longer economically viable. "There is no need to fight against the current and we need to develop big cities and urban centres," the plan said  according to the newspaper. Saddled by an obsession for central planning, the Soviets decreed that many towns and settlements be built in  areas where the climate was too harsh and where the expense of providing basic utilities was unjustifiably  expensive. Analysts said the plan, which would roll back the Soviet idea of urbanising the entire country, is likely to be  heavily touted by President Dmitry Medvedev as part of his agenda to modernise Russia. "Changing the map of the country is a necessary but not simple task which needs to be done very carefully as  any overreaction could lead to a fight for urban resources," a government official was quoted as saying. With speculation mounting about whether Mr Medvedev or Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, will run for the  Russian presidency in 2012, the plan could be a useful electoral tool for Mr Medvedev according to analysts.   Telegraph  Russia sends hit squad to kill renegade colonel who gave up Anna Chapman spy ring Russia has sent a hit squad to kill a renegade colonel in its own foreign intelligence service who fled to the  United States this summer after exposing a sprawling Russian spy ring. Colonel Scherbakov was the traitor who had given the FBI the names of the ten sleeper agents who made up the  ring, including glamorous spy Anna Chapman Photo: BARCROFT By Andrew Osborn in Moscow 9:18PM GMT 11 Nov 2010 The man, named as Colonel Scherbakov, worked for Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, a successor agency  to the KGB, where he oversaw a top- secret programme to dispatch long-term sleeper agents or "illegals" to the  United States. Russian intelligence sources told the Kommersant newspaper that he was the traitor who had given the FBI the  names of the ten sleeper agents who made up the ring, including glamorous spy Anna Chapman. In at least one case,  he is even said to have taken part in an interrogation. In an echo of the Cold War, a Kremlin source was quoted as saying that Colonel Scherbakov would not have long to  savour his betrayal. "We know who he is and where he is," the source said. "Have no doubt that a Mercader has been sent after him already." Ramon Mercader was the KGB assassin who murdered exiled Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky with an ice pick in 1940.  A "Mercader" is a synonym for a hit squad. "The fate of such an individual is unenviable," the Kremlin source continued. "He will fear revenge every day (of his life)." The FBI went public with the names Colonel Scherbakov had given it in June just days after he himself had fled to the  United States. The 10 agents he compromised were exchanged for four men convicted by Russia of being Western spies  the following month in the biggest spy swap since the Cold War. Vladimir Putin, who served as a KGB agent in East Germany in the 1980s, hinted this summer that he knew the identity  of the traitor. "This was the result of treason and traitors always end badly," the Russian prime minister said. The reason for Colonel Scherbakov betraying his own agents was not clear but the paper said his daughter was a  longtime resident of the United States and that his son had moved there earlier this year. The colonel turned down  a promotion last year because he knew he would have to take a lie-detector test and feared he would give himself  way, it added. Intelligence sources complained there were a number of suspicious things about the double agent  that should have rang alarm bells and been investigated but were not. Gennady Gudkov, deputy chairman of the powerful security committee in the lower house of parliament, said he  had known that Colonel Scherbakov was the traitor. He called for a parliamentary inquiry into the fiasco amid calls  for Mikhail Fradkov, the head of the SVR foreign intelligence service, to resign. "The damage committed by the colonel to the state is too enormous," not to have further repercussions, Mr Gudkov  told the Interfax news agency. The view among Russia's intelligence community was that it was one of the worst setbacks it had suffered, he added. The disclosure has stoked speculation that Russia's intelligence services may be restructured as an investigation into  how a double agent could have operated at such a high level continued. "This is a big mix-up that will see heads roll  and people demoted," an intelligence source told Kommersant. The most valuable of the 10 Russian agents exposed appears to be Mikhail Vasenkov who operated under the name J uan Lazaro. Intelligence sources claimed he had been able to obtain the US President's travel agenda years in advance.  US investigators had broken his leg and three ribs while interrogating him, they claimed     Telegraph Dmitry Medvedev confirms traitor told US about Russian spy ring Dmitry Medvedev has confirmed that a traitor in his own country's foreign intelligence service told the FBI  about a Russian spy ring operating in the US that was smashed this summer.   Colonel Scherbakov was the traitor who had given the FBI the names of the ten sleeper agents who made up  the ring, including glamorous spy Anna Chapman Photo: BARCROFT By Andrew Osborn in Moscow 5:00PM GMT 12 Nov 2010 The admission, which is embarrassing for Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, came as experts said that  more Russian spies were likely to still be operating in the United States undetected. Mr Medvedev said that news that a certain Colonel Scherbakov had betrayed the 10 Russian spies including  glamorous Anna Chapman was broadly right. "This was not news to me," he told reporters at the G20 summit in South Korea. "I knew about it the day it  happened." The ten spies were exchanged in July for four men Russia was holding as Western agents in the  biggest spy swap since the Cold War. Mr Medvedev conceded that Russia had to learn lessons from the fiasco and said an investigation was under  way. However, he stopped short of backing the sacking of Mikhail Fradkov, the head of the SVR foreign  intelligence service. On Thursday, the daily Kommersant newspaper published an article which named Colonel Scherbakov as the  man who gave the Russian spy ring up. It quoted a Kremlin official as saying that a hit squad had been sent after  him to extract revenge, explaining he had been the head of a top-secret programme to dispatch "illegals" or  undercover sleeper agents to America. However, Andrei Soldatov, co-author of a new book on Russia's intelligence services called The New Nobility,  said Moscow's spy operations in the United States were unlikely to be fully compromised. "You have to remember  that we have two other intelligence agencies, military intelligence or GRU and the FSB security service, that also  have the right to send people abroad. As far as I know GRU have also kept the tradition of operating illegals." There was also a practice within the agency that had been compromised, the SVR, to compartmentalise information  and not to share contacts with colleagues which meant that Colonel Scherbakov was unlikely to have had the names  of all the illegals in the SVR's US programme anyway, he added. Mr Soldatov said he was sceptical about some elements of the story about the colonel and believed the story may  have been deliberately leaked to improve the image of Russia's spies among ordinary Russians. "For ordinary  people this whole thing is a reason to be proud. It shows that we can still fight the old enemy," he said.     Telegraph   British double agent George Blake predicts end of 'American empire' George Blake, the British double agent, has forecast that the "American empire" will crumble and predicted  that every country in the world will one day embrace Communism. George Blake gives a rare interview to Izvestia in 2010 (left) and lands at RAF Abingdon having been interned in  North Korea for three years (right)  By Andrew Osborn in Moscow 6:45PM GMT 11 Nov 2010 In a rare interview given on the occasion of his 88th birthday, the former Soviet agent said he had no regrets and expressed no remorse for betraying Britain or its intelligence service. Still an ardent Russophile, Mr Blake, who calls himself Georgy Ivanovich in Moscow, said he still had no time for  American foreign policy. "The American empire will disappear because everyone who lives by the sword dies from the sword," he told the daily  Izvestia newspaper. Mr Blake was a member of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, from 1944 to 1961. Around 1951, he also  became an agent for the Soviet Union. After being arrested in 1960, he pleaded guilty to five counts of unlawfully  communicating information contrary to the Official Secrets Act. In 1966, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison  in London before fleeing to Russia, after serving only five years of a 42-year sentence. In the interview, which appeared timed to remind the world of Russia's spying prowess despite the embarrassing  exposure of a Russian spy ring in the US earlier this year, Blake admitted that the Soviet Union he arrived at in  1966 did not live up to his high-minded Communist ideals. But he made it clear he had not lost the faith. "I understand now that the Soviet project was doomed. The problem was not the Russians but human nature.  Humankind was not sufficiently moral to build such a society," he conceded. But he said he was confident that time was on Communism's side. "One day I believe that the majority of governments will voluntarily choose the Communist model. Without  violence, revolution or terror. Maybe it sounds like a Utopia but I believe in it. There will be no wars and no  competition." Mr Blake, who said his eyesight was failing and that he had just helped make a film of his life, described a  comfortable if quiet existence in Moscow with his second wife with whom he has an adult son. He said he had acquired a taste for vodka, followed the international news closely by watching the BBC via satellite TV, and kept in regular contact with his three sons in Britain from his first marriage.    Telegraph   'Merchant of Death' Viktor Bout extradited Viktor Bout, the suspected Russian arms dealer, has been unexpectedly flown out of Thailand aboard a  special jet to face terrorism charges in the US. Viktor Bout, handcuffed, is escorted by Thai and US special forces to board the plane for extradition to the USA   Photo: EPA/STR < > Article Life of 'The Lord of War' - Fact or Fiction? Article Russia denounces 'Merchant of Death' extradition Article Viktor Bout extradition takes shine off US-Russian reset Article Viktor Bout: the 'Lord of War' Article Thailand delays 'Merchant of Death' extradition 1 2 By Ian MacKinnon, Bangkok 11:44AM GMT 16 Nov 2010 The 43-year-old former Soviet air force officer - dubbed the “Merchant of Death” - was given a heavily-armed escort  when he was taken from Bangkok’s maximum security prison to the plane after the Thai cabinet approved the decision. The Russian embassy in Bangkok said it was not warned of the move and Mr Bout’s lawyer in Moscow described  his extradition to the US as “illegal”. The Thai government came under intense pressure from Washington and Moscow during the long court saga since Mr Bout was arrested in joint US-Thai operation in a luxury Bangkok hotel in March 2008. US agents had lured  Mr Bout to Bangkok where he allegedly offered to sell them weapons believing the officials to be Colombian  FARC rebels, which Washington designates as a terrorist organisation. Russia’s foreign ministry long-insisted Mr Bout’s extradition was politically motivated and Moscow used a lot  of arm-twisting on the government of Abhisit Vejjajiva to prevent his extradition going ahead. Mr Bout, who maintains he was not involved in arms trafficking and was merely businessman running an air  transport company, had long dodged US and UN sanctions design to curtail his travel and disrupt his finances.  His lawyer bitterly fought the extradition. It is widely said the so-called “Lord of War” character - played by Nicholas Cage in the Hollywood movie of the  same name - was partially modelled on Mr Bout. It is suspected he supplied weapons that fed conflicts in South  America, the Middle East and most notably Africa, where buyers allegedly included Liberia and Libya. A Thai court at first rejected US demands for Mr Bout’s extradition in August last year, but the appeals court  reversed the decision 12 months later. But a special jet sent by Washington to collect him within hours of the judgment was left idling on the Tarmac.  Legal technicalities held up the procedure because the US had filed money laundering charges against Mr Bout  in a bid to keep in custody if the appeals court decision went against them. Only in October did another court allow the charges to be dropped finally clearing the way for the extradition.  The Thai cabinet backed the appeals court’s decision that the case was not politically motivated and he was put  on a plane at 1.30pm (6.30am GMT) guarded by eight US officials. In Moscow, where it is widely-believed Mr Bout must have had backing from high-up in the administration to  carry on his lucrative operations for so long, the fear is that he may disclose his secret dealings as part of a plea  bargain.