Oligarchs living in fear as Putin purges take bloody toll
It has long been a cut-throat world for the Russian elite, but the recent spate of blood-letting – both literal and figurative – has shocked serving and former government officials, who spoke with The Telegraph anonymously amid fear of reprisals.
People who might once have been seen as untouchable, either through their political connections or loyalty to Vladimir Putin, have found themselves out of favour, out of office and, on occasion, falling out of windows.
The war in Ukraine has upended the status quo, with the Kremlin nationalising businesses to plug its coffers while corporate 'raiders' compete ever more violently for a shrinking piece of the pie.
'It all looks horrifying,' said a former official from the Russian presidential administration. 'If you look at the recent arrest of top state company executives, the mysterious deaths, people in government and politics are, pardon my French, s----ing themselves.'
In July alone, Andrei Badalov, the vice-president of state-owned pipeline company Transneft, fell to his death from a balcony at his home. A former deputy defence minister was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment on charges of corruption, only for a fellow military official to go down for 17.
Meanwhile, state security drove the nationalisation of the country's largest airport, taking it from the hands of owners with dual citizenship, while the Bombardier jet of billionaire gold tycoon Konstantin Strukov was boarded to prevent him from fleeing the country.
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The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
What does Ghislaine Maxwell really know and why the Epstein files go deeper than you think
The conspiracies began circulating before the proverbial ink was dry. Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire financier and convicted child sex offender, 'dead after 'apparent suicide' in New York jail', ran the headline in The Washington Post on 11 August 2019 (single quote marks theirs). The Boston Globe too described it as an 'apparent suicide'. 'Epstein's jail death gets US scrutiny,' said The Philadelphia Inquirer. When FBI agents arrested Epstein after his private jet landed in New Jersey a month earlier and charged him with sex trafficking minors in Florida and New York, his victims waited to learn the truth. After his death, the voices clamouring for transparency got louder. As did those claiming conspiracy. A year on, when his former girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, was arrested by the FBI at a secluded property in New Hampshire, they didn't stop. And they didn't quieten when Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. Over the years, conspiracy theories have abounded of deep state coverups, speculation that rich and powerful men had been involved in an elite sex-trafficking ring, and that Epstein had been murdered so their identities would never be revealed. Donald Trump, on the presidential campaign trail in 2024, fanned the flames further when he announced he'd seek to open the government's 'Epstein files' should he be elected. When he did win the presidency, his attorney general, Pam Bondi, spoke of an Epstein 'client list' sitting on her desk. We knew that a cast of celebrities and politicians were in Epstein's black book — names like Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Tony Blair, Bill Cosby, and Woody Allen. But how many of those were just recipients of Epstein's political donations, friends, acquaintances? What incriminating evidence lay within the thousands of documents the FBI had assembled in the course of its investigation? Finally, it looked like we were about to find out. Then, earlier this month, Trump's justice department and the FBI suddenly released a two-page unsigned memo concluding Epstein hadn't maintained a client list after all – and what's more, it wouldn't be releasing any further files related to its sex trafficking investigation, despite the promises by Trump and Bondi who had pledged to release a 'truckload' of bombshell FBI documents. Nobody could have foreseen a fissure in the Maga ranks to appear so quickly and prominently. Karl Rove, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff under George Bush, said we were witnessing what happens when conspiracy collides with reality. 'For years,' he said, 'Trump raised questions about Epstein… After assuming the presidency a second time, Mr Trump was obligated to deliver.' When he didn't, 'Many in Maga reacted with incredulity and anger.' Tucker Carlson, once Trump's most vocal cheerleader, turned on him, accusing the administration of betraying its base and of dismissing legitimate questions about Epstein. Each day, the saga seems to unravel further. The Wall Street Journal published a story describing a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper says bore Trump's name and was included in a 2003 album given to Epstein for his 50th birthday. Trump vehemently denied writing the letter, calling it 'false, malicious, and defamatory'. He then proceeded to sue the paper and its owner, media mogul Rupert Murdoch. While Trump announced he asked Bondi to release 'pertinent' files on the criminal investigation of Epstein, 'subject to court approval', further intrigue was stirred on Wednesday when the WSJ reported that Bondi had informed Trump during briefing back in May that his name appeared in Justice Department documents related to Epstein. The White House pushed back, dismissing the WSJ story as 'fake news'. But an unnamed White House official told Reuters they were not denying that Trump's name appears in the documents. Then, also on Wednesday, a judge rejected the Trump administration's request to unseal transcripts from grand jury documents relating to Epstein from 2005 and 2007 because they did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public. A day later, an official at the Department of Justice met with Maxwell inside an office in a Florida courthouse. In a statement ahead of that meeting, Deputy attorney General Todd Blanche said: 'If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.' Their first meeting was described as 'very productive' by Maxwell's lawyer, but for now at least, it's unlikely we'll hear exactly what Maxwell told him. Meanwhile, senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat and fierce Trump critic, took issue with the fact that Trump sent Blanche, his former personal lawyer turned federal prosecutor, to interview Maxwell ahead of her potential public testimony. 'The conflict of interest is glaring. It stinks of high corruption,' he said on X. It's important to understand what, exactly, the Epstein files are – and how they differ from the court documents Trump is now asking to be released. Barry Levine, author of The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, says that the grand jury testimony at issue is very limited and has little to do with the two-decades-long sex trafficking operation that Epstein ran. He says the US attorney at the time, Geoffrey Berman, went in front of a grand jury and presented just enough evidence to successfully bring an indictment. 'And that indictment was very narrow in its content – for the sexual abuse of minors from 2002 to 2005 at Epstein's homes in Palm Beach and New York,' Levine says. 'If you look at the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, that prosecution was extremely narrow also in terms of the specific allegations against her.' Maxwell was convicted on five sex-trafficking-related counts. Levine said if these court documents are released, they're going to tell us very little in addition to what we already know. 'It's basically a sliver of the information that's contained in the actual FBI files.' Those files – the 'real' Epstein files, if you like – are, Levine says, incredibly detailed. The FBI files cover every aspect of Epstein's crimes and his life over two decades, including extensive interviews with victims and information that goes all the way back to the original FBI investigation in 2006. Epstein was already a convicted child molester when he was arrested in 2019: in 2008, he pleaded guilty to a state charge in Florida of procuring a minor for prostitution. Back then, a federal investigation into his crimes resulted in a 'non-prosecution agreement'. Alexander Acosta, who was then the US attorney responsible, said he offered a lenient plea deal because he was told Epstein was an intelligence asset. As Levine said, 'We don't know if it was US intelligence or a foreign role as an intelligence asset.' If, indeed, Epstein was an intelligence asset at all. By all accounts, he had a grandiose image of himself as an 'international man of mystery'. The FBI file on Epstein, which dates back to that time, is 300GB. 'That translates to enough information to fill perhaps 100,000 books by some estimates,' Levine says. We don't know if there has ever been any criminal investigation into Trump's conduct as it relates to Epstein. 'But,' Levine said, 'that doesn't necessarily mean that there [aren't] details about Donald Trump in the file because they were friends for 15 years. He was Epstein's wingman after [Trump's] divorce from Ivana Trump; they hung out a great deal. They were still friends during his marriage to Marla Maples and even up to the time when Trump was courting Melania.' Trump and Epstein were friends before, according to the president, they fell out in the early 2000s. By not allowing full disclosure of the Epstein files, Trump has ignited what Levine said is the most infighting within the Maga movement he's ever seen. 'There's a raging inferno in the Maga ranks that Trump has, for the first time in his political career, been unable to put out, and we're seeing individuals who have worshipped him like a God now speaking out against him. It really is fascinating.' So what does Ghislaine Maxwell really know? According to journalist Julie Brown, whose investigation into Epstein for the Miami Herald in 2018 was credited with the FBI re-opening the sexual abuse case against him: everything. 'I think [the DOJ] are trying to get her to say Trump wasn't involved. I think that's the aim of this,' Brown says. 'They're not aiming to expose anybody else who was involved. They're just aiming to clear up any misconceptions around Trump … So far there's been no evidence he was involved with Epstein's crimes at all, but nevertheless, the idea that he shut the investigation down so solidly without even saying, 'we're going to look at this a little bit more' I think makes a lot of people wonder…' Brown, whose 2021 book Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story has recently seen a surge in demand, selling out both in shops and online, says it's unfortunate the way the Trump administration has handled the Epstein Files. 'For a long time, they promised transparency with this case … And I think there was some hope on the part of both the public and the survivors that they would get some answers. Here was a man who abused hundreds of young girls and women over two decades. And he essentially got away with it. 'We don't know why they're not releasing it. It's a little bit disturbing to be announcing all over television that you're going to release these files and then all of a sudden on the Friday after the Fourth of July holiday, when nobody's really paying attention to the news, to issue this statement that basically says there's nothing to see here and we're not going to open the files.' Brown says there are likely a lot of other people involved in Epstein's crimes that haven't been brought to justice; so many, she says, who have avoided prosecution. Epstein was trafficking underage girls for sex over the course of two decades. Because of that, his co-conspirators could number as many as 100, Brown believes. 'He had so many different people work for him at different times – people who helped arrange his 'schedule' in quote marks, lawyers who helped arrange the visas for models that he would bring from overseas, pilots. He had a huge staff of people. The list goes on and on.' As Barry Levine says, we know from the attorney general in the Virgin Islands who investigated Epstein's operation there that 'Epstein was using international fixers to bring women in from all different countries, like Russia and elsewhere.' When Palm Beach police conducted a search of Epstein's home there in 2005, they confiscated hundreds of notepads, the contents of some of which have been made public in civil lawsuits. 'On those, you'll see messages from powerful men who called him,' Brown says. 'They'll have their name, and then it'll say 'I'm at this hotel'. Now, that's not enough to say they were doing anything with underage girls. 'But I know from talking to some of the attorneys representing these survivors that there were powerful people who would come to Palm Beach and basically call to tell Epstein 'I'm here'. And the unspoken or unwritten message was: you can send somebody to me.' Brown believes that it's unlikely Maxwell will ever reveal what is in those files. At her trial, her main line of defence was that it didn't happen – 'that these girls were all making it up to get money out of a very wealthy man.' The truth is, Brown said, Maxwell knows exactly what's in the Epstein files. 'She knows everything. … And she used her motherly way, her nurturing way, to lure these women into this orbit.'
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
School-leavers losing their lives for Russia in Putin's war with Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly promised that no 18-year-olds called up to serve Russia will be sent to fight in Ukraine, but a BBC Russian investigation has found at least 245 soldiers of that age have been killed there in the past two government rules mean teenagers fresh out of school have been able to bypass military service and go straight into the regular army as contract may make up only a fraction of Russian losses, but cash bonuses and patriotic propaganda have made signing up an attractive Petlinsky enlisted two weeks after his 18th birthday. He was killed in Ukraine just 20 days later: one of hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed in Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine which has also claimed the lives of at least 13,500 Ukrainian civilians since Putin launched the invasion in February 2022. Petlinsky's aunt Ekaterina said he had dreamed of a career in medicine and won a place at a medical college in Chelyabinsk, an industrial regional centre in the Urals."But Sasha had another dream," she told a school memorial event. "When the special military operation began, Sasha was 15. And he dreamed of going to the front."In Ukraine, the call-up age is has managed to avoid a national mobilisation by offering lavish sums to men of fighting age - an especially attractive deal for those in poorer regions with few job men had to have at least three months of conscript service under their belts before signing a restriction was quietly dropped in April 2023, despite protests from some MPs, so now any young man who has reached the age of 18 and finished school can sign up to join the education system has ensured they are ready to enlist. Since the full-scale invasion began, teachers have been required by law to hold classes dedicated to the "special military operation", as the war is officially returning from the front visit schools to talk about their experiences, children are taught how to make camouflage nets and trench candles, and even nursery school pupils are encouraged to send letters and drawings to the the start of the last school year on 1 September 2024, a new subject was brought into the a throwback to the Soviet era, senior students are once again being taught how to use Kalashnikov rifles and hand grenades as part of a course called "The Basics of Safety and Homeland Defence".In many regions, military recruiters now attend careers lessons in schools and technical colleges, telling young people how to sign up as contract soldiers after they Ivanov grew up in a small village in Siberia and dropped out of college where he was learning to be a got into trouble with police, and when he was accused of robbing a small shop in November 2024, he complained to his mother and girlfriend he had been beaten into giving a confession. His friend Mikhail told the BBC that Vitaly had always planned to do his military service when he turned 18. Then, together, they would go and find work building roads in Kazan, a city about 3,700km (2,300 miles) to the he signed a contract to join the army. His family have not ruled out that it was the police who "persuaded" day before he left he called his mother, Anna, to say he was about to leave."I'm off to the North-Eastern Military District," he other words, he was heading for and Alexander reached the frontline at about the same time in last message home on 5 February was to say he was being sent into combat."This was his first and last combat mission," says enlistment office rang her a month later to say he had died on 11 February. As part of BBC Russian's ongoing project using open sources to count Russia's war dead, we have identified and confirmed 245 names of 18-year-old contract soldiers killed in Ukraine between April 2023 - when the rules for joining up were eased - and July were enlisted as contract servicemen and, judging from published obituaries, most joined the armed forces according to our research, since the start of the full-scale invasion at least 2,812 Russian men aged 18-20 years have been killed in BBC's figures are based on open-source information and because not every death is publicly reported, the real losses are bound to be late July the BBC had established the names of 120,343 Russian soldiers killed during the full-scale war. Military experts estimate that makes up 45-65% of the real death toll, which would equate to 185,143 to 267,500 dead. When Alexander Petlinksy turned 18 on 31 January, the first thing he did was to apply to take a year out of college so he could sign a contract with the Defence he had wanted to become a doctor, he also dreamed of going to fight in next month he was already at the front, and on 9 March he died."As a citizen of the Russian Federation, I am proud of my son," his mother, Elena, told the BBC."But as a mother - I can't cope with this loss."She declined to say friend Anastasia says the fact that 18-year-olds are signing contracts to join the army is now a very "painful subject" for her."They're young and naive, and there's so much they don't understand," she says. "They just don't grasp the full responsibility of what they're doing."
The Independent
7 hours ago
- The Independent
Couple sue police force at High Court over death of transgender teenager
The mother and stepfather of a transgender teenager who took his own life after going missing are taking High Court legal action against a police force whose response was found to have potentially contributed to his death. Jason Pulman was found dead aged 15 in Hampden Park in Eastbourne in April 2022, with an inquest jury finding in April last year that his emotional and mental needs were 'inadequately assessed and provided for' by multiple services, and that police 'responded inadequately' to his going missing. Emily and Mark Pulman are now suing Sussex Police over an alleged breach of human rights, with around 10 hours passing between Jason being reported missing and an officer first attending their family home. They claim the force 'failed properly or at all to protect Jason against the risk of suicide' after he was graded only a 'medium risk', and that there was a 'real prospect of a different outcome' if there was a 'reasonable response' to Jason's disappearance. They also say the force is 'flip-flopping' over its position and whether it has learned from Jason's death. The force has expressed its 'sincere condolences' to Jason's family. Speaking to the PA news agency, the couple said Jason's death, the subsequent inquest and legal battle had been 'devastating'. Mrs Pulman, 39, said: 'If the police can actually take accountability for what has happened and what went wrong, that is the only way they can start making changes.' She continued: 'I think about Jason and how much he used to fight for things he believed in. He used to go to protests and research and get involved in different things because he wanted to make change.' 'I want to try and get some change for kids like Jason, as I know that that is what he would want as well. 'When I feel like quitting, I have got Jason's cheeky little head in my head, with his outfit, with all his badges on, saying 'you must fight for what you believe', and that is what gives me strength.' Jason began identifying as a male aged around 14, but never received specialist gender dysphoria treatment due to assessment delays. In documents filed at the High Court by law firm Bindmans, Nick Armstrong KC, for Mr and Mrs Pulman, claimed Jason also received insufficient mental health support. On April 19 2022, Mrs Pulman discovered Jason was missing from their home in East Sussex and called the police. She informed a call handler that Jason was transgender, had previously self-harmed and attempted to take his own life, and may have taken public transport. The call handler graded Jason as medium-risk, but an officer did not look at the case for more than three hours after the first call, despite Mrs Pulman ringing police twice more and stating Jason had informed a friend he was travelling to London, most likely by train. Jason remained graded as medium-risk, the British Transport Police (BTP) were not notified, and an officer did not attend the family's home for almost 10 hours after the first call. This was despite there being 'other opportunities' to intercept Jason, Mr Armstrong said. Around an hour after police visited the house, Jason was found dead in Hampden Park by a member of the public. In a prevention of future deaths report last year, a coroner said Jason died 'potentially through his mental health and gender identity issues', and that it was 'also possible Jason may have been prevented from committing suicide' if BTP was made aware that he was missing. Mr Armstrong said police knew or should have known that Jason 'represented a real and immediate risk of life-threatening harm', but that their response was 'slow, and strikingly casual'. He continued that Jason was a 'source of unlimited joy', describing him as 'funny, mischievous, artistic, rude and unconventional', and that his death was an 'unimaginable tragedy'. Nine days after Jason's death, Mr and Mrs Pulman met then-chief superintendent Katy Woolford. Mr Armstrong said that Ms Woolford told the Pulmans that they had done 'everything right' and that there had been failings by the police, including not immediately grading Jason as high-risk. But the barrister continued that there was a 'significant and distressing shift in the police's evidence' at Jason's inquest, with the force allegedly seeking to exclude evidence related to the meeting with Ms Woolford and claiming there was 'no arguable omission by anyone'. The force accepted the inquest findings, stating that its service 'fell below the standards expected', but is accused of changing its stance again when the family threatened to bring legal action. Mr Armstrong said that the force's 'reversal and re-reversal' on its position was 'shameful', adding: 'The claimants do not know whether the defendant has or has not learned from the inquest process.' Mrs Pulman said: 'You feel like you're getting close to answers and closure as to what happened and what has been happening, and then it is pulled away again.' She continued: 'It's like torture, because you're getting somewhere, then you're kicked down.' Mr Pulman, 50, said the force's 'flip-flopping' left the pair feeling 'let down, hurt and confused', which, combined with the emotional impact of Jason's death, means he feels 'hopeless'. He said: 'No amount of money, no apology, is going to make up for three years of what they've done, because that's long-term damage.' A Sussex Police spokesperson said: 'Our sincere condolences remain with Jason's family following their tragic loss; however, we are unable to comment further whilst legal proceedings are ongoing.'
