On investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election

As a former Russian investment banker who was employed by a Treasury of Gazprombank (a banking arm of Gazprom, Russian government-controlled energy monopoly) I submitted to the British Metropolatan police, namely Mr. John Yates ant Mr. Peter Clarke (former Deputy Assistant Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police) in 2006 details of an alleged Russian financing of the re-election campaign of Tony Blair, then Prime-minister of the UK. Mr. John Yates was then a head of a special police unit that led the so-called “cash-for-honours” police inquiry. Mr. Peter Clarke was in charge of Anti-terrorism activities. I submitted all relevant details including cash amounts that had been transferred to an off-shore account of a firm Gelios AG, an off-shore account in Cyprus and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, London. I assumed that the account either belonged personally to Mr. Blair or had been used by the British Labour party in re-eleсtion campaign of 2005.


Being questioned in British Parliament later about reasons for a substantial delay in the police inqury Mr. John Yates indirectly mentioned that his special police unit had received new information that required further thorough investigation in a different direction.


I have reasons to be confident that my allegations had been investigated, confirmed and included in the final file that was submitted in 2007 by the Metropolitan police to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that was in a position to make a final decision on the case that might have potentially led to resignation of the Prime-minister. Prior to that and only a week after my letter to HMQ, the Metropolitan police arrested Ms. Ruth Turner, the closest aide of Tony Blair, widely referred to as “gate-keeper”, who was specifically put in charge of inter-government relations. Lord Levy, the key fundraiser to Tony Blair, was equally arrested by the Metropolitan police. There was no connection between inter-government relations and cash-for-honours police inquiry, unless my allegations had been taken into account.


Equally, I am certain that Tony Blair had reached an arrangement with the Russians with a stipulation for British holding company Centrica (that owns British energy giant British Gas) to be sold to Russian Gazprom after the re-election of Tony Blair. Gazprom was in talk then with Centrica regarding a forthcoming sale and Tony Blair had publicly welcomed the deal. Either due to my public statements or/and because of severe criticism of his policies on other issues the potential sale was not finalized. Surely the deal failed to be finalized not because the Russians lost their interest in purchasing the largest energy retailer in the UK and not because any opposition to the proposed sale in the UK.



I think that after the file was submitted to CPS it was arranged that Tony Blair would step down from his position of Prime-minister (in favour of Gordon Brown and without new election or even referendum) and no charges (criminal or any other) would be brought against him and his closest aides.


Provided the Senators of the USA may choose to question former top British police officers or/and may request a copy of the police file that was submitted to Crown Prosecution Service, any

relevant inquiry into a potential Russian meddling in the 2016 election might receive the additional substantial regarding methods that have been potentially used by Kremlin and Russian intelligence and the level of politicians being affected.


A mention should be made that I submitted my allegations to several prominent British politicians including Rt. Hon. Sir Malcolm Rifkind, MP (former Foreign Secretary of the UK) and Rt. Hon. Sir Menzies Campbell, MP. As it turned out later both were members of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC). Rt. Hon. Sir Malcolm Rifkind, MP was a chairman of ISC and Conservative Friends of Russia (initially I resided in his constituency).


I am a former witness in a litigation in the USA in favour of petitioners (a group of US citizens, minority shareholders of Russian oil company YUKOS). That petition was submitted in Washington, D.C. on 25th October, 2005 against the Russian Federation, Russian state-controlled energy monopolies Gazprom and Rosneft, and two former top-level government officials Mr. Sechin and Mr. Kudrin (Allen, et al. v. Russian Federation, et al., Civil No. 05-2077, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, action for expropriation of YUKOS Oil Company). The amended petition that included my allegations and my name (based on my witness statement submitted earlier in London, UK where I resided then) was submitted in Washington, D.C. on 13th July, 2006.

 

So you are a witness to what the Russians are capable of and you tend to believe that they DID mettle in our election. You agree that the investigations should continue.
There is something there.