ISSUES....
Inside, confidential, off the record

Spook on the loose

The "coincidences" just keep piling up regarding Russia and coincidentally "dead" reporters, investigators and former renegade KGB agents. Yesterday came news, after we had written our commentary, of .the death of Ivan Safronov, a military affairs writer for the daily newspaper, Kommersant, who died Friday when he "accidentally" fell from the 5th floor of his apartment in Moscow. Mr. Safranov was apparently working on a series of articles that would likely prove menacing to the Putin regime. Now, however, those articles will not be published because of his
"accidental" death. His death preceded the killing of Paul Joyal in suburban Washington D.C. over the past weekend. Mr. Joyal, as our readers will recall, was supposedly shot to death by a random drive-by-shooting, according to officials there. Then they said that the shooting was the result of a robbery gone bad; however, that was disproved yesterday when his widow reported that her husband had not been robber and that reports that his wallet and briefcase had been taken were false. Mrs. Joyal did not know of any reason her husband's death outside their home in what she said was a normally safe neighbourhood. Mr. Joyal was killed only days after he appeared on a national television alleging that Mr. Putin was involved in the fatal poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London last year. As one reader wrote to inform us, however, these were all "coincidences" and there is nothing upon which blame can be placed upon Mr. Putin. Yes, five dead reporters in a short span of time, all of whom are writing to take the Kremlin to task for the same offense, must be coincidental. How can it be anything else?.

From Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter L.C.

For more on interesting comments, you can subscribe to The Gartman Letter by contacting Dennis Garthman: Phone 757 238 9346, Fax 757 238 9346 or dennis@thegartmanletter.com

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