The Trouble With Being a Mobster

The Semyon Mogilevich story is becoming more intriguing. Over the weekend, Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy at the Guardian in London weighed in with a long piece linking the notorious alleged mobster to the assassination of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko.

Mogilevich, who has been on the FBI most-wanted list for years, was arrested last Thursday on tax charges in Moscow. Russian authorities said they had long been looking for Mogilevich, who has lived for years in plain sight in the Russian capital. There is much conjecture on why he was arrested just now. Some of it involves supposed efforts to unwind the shadowy natural gas trade between Russia and Ukraine, in which Mogilevich appeared to have a role.

The Guardian story is quite an involved piece of journalism. The top half is background, but it then picks up with a tale of Litvinenko investigating Mogilevich, who according to the piece griped about it to his FSB pals, who got angry at Litvinenko … well, you get the picture. It all ends with Litvinenko having polonium 210 dropped into his tea in November 2006.

I have to note the remarkable coincidence of two huge Mogilevich stories breaking at precisely the same time. First his arrest, and now the accusation of involvement in one of the biggest murder cases of recent years.

One can be certain that the FSB is scouring its voluminous unsolved case file for items to hang on the unsympathetic Mogilevich.