Quote of the Day: Novichok has Already Killed: Ivan Kiveldi, Head of Rosbusinessbank, in 1995

According to this Russian-language website, thoughtfully translated by Google, the nerve agent “Novichok” [loosely translated as “Newbie”] was used in the “poisoning of the head of Rosbusinessbank Ivan Kivelidi in 1995” and the associated poisoning and illness of numerous other people who entered his office while the substance was apparently applied to the mouthpiece of his telephone receiver.

The crime was conveniently found to be done by Chechen terrorists and other foreign criminals, but the testimony of a Professor Leonid Rink was featured in this web article on the site “Novaya Gazeta” in Russian, published on March 22, 2018.  The testimony was originally given in 199-2006 in association with an investigation.  Professor Rink claimed that he “received” the poison in the course of his work at a government-run research institution and later sold it to a ring of criminals who used it for their own purposes.  Rink worked as head and leading investigator at the “State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology” and says that, in those days after the collapse of the USSR they weren’t being paid their salaries and were desperate for money (1994)… so he sold a small quantity of the substance to a criminal who had demanded such a thing from him on pain of death (you know, the mafia way)… and this lead to the deaths of Ivan Kiveldi and his secretary, and serious poisonings for numerous other people who went in the room where Kiveldi and his secretary Zara Ismailova died, even briefly.  Why the head of a major bank should have to die was not explained, but it is somehow assumed that he stood in the way of some criminal plan.

A similar scenario could have been behind the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal.  A small quantity of the poisonous substance could have been synthesized and then smeared on his doorknob by knowing or unknowing accomplices.  It is even possible that a binary version may have been developed, making the application less risky.

The principal criminal plan that seems to envelop the name of Donald J. Trump is the institution of money laundering.  For many years, criminal gangs have been whitewashing their profits by purchasing large apartments at inflated prices in places like Trump hotels, of which there are money all over the world.  Then they don’t bother to actually live in those apartments, leaving empty shells that consume no water or other resources– making an ideal tenant for the owner, Donald J. Trump.  That is the easiest explanation for why a particular known Russian gangster purchased five apartments for five million dollars and left them empty.

There is abundant evidence that Donald J. Trump, after bankrupting two casinos, became persona non grata to the usual New York, national, and even international money lenders– the big banks.  There is also a large quantity of circumstantial evidence that Mr. Trump benefited from the sale of his name for promotional purposes to known gangsters.  The only thing lacking is clear, convincing evidence that Mr. Trump knowingly participated in a criminal conspiracy to launder money in a particularly blatant way.  The lack of direct links between Mr. Trump and dirty money, despite the numerous and open associations with famous Russian gangsters, is not surprising.