Smersh Real – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMERSH

Smersh James Bond – https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/SMERSH

Putin & Smersh

Smersh: why Putin has reinstated Stalin’s notorious and much-feared anti-spy unit

A man under arrest by Russian internal security forces was seen confessing to a “crime”, in a video posted on January 2. He had been apprehended after allegedly posting a video on social media that purportedly showed air defences near the Russian city of Belgorod. This city, on the border with Ukraine, was the target of Ukrainian missile attacks on the same day.

What was notable, though, about this confessional was that the man was flanked by two internal security officers who had the word Smersh emblazoned on the backs of their jackets.

Many people in the west remember Smersh from Ian Fleming’s early James Bond novels (and early films). It was the shadowy Soviet spy agency bent on eliminating the fictional British agent.

But there was nothing fictitious about Smersh itself. It was a real counterintelligence agency set up in Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union during the second world war.

Indeed, the name Smersh (a blend of Russian words Smert’ Shpionam which translates into English as “death to spies”), was supposedly coined by Stalin himself. The fact that Smersh – with its alarming moniker – has reappeared may be seen as a further indication of the increasing clampdown on all forms of internal dissent in Russia.

https://theconversation.com/smersh-why-putin-has-reinstated-stalins-notorious-and-much-feared-anti-spy-unit-220627

The latest update

New whistleblower evidence ties Sergei Berezin (aka Paul Berkholts) to Russian Government directly as well as an assassination attempt of Igor Kekshin (aka Anders)

The Juicy Fields litigation team can now reveal a stunning new piece of evidence tying the alleged erstwhile head of the Juicy Fields scam, Sergei Berezin, aka Paul Bergholts just arrested in the Dominican Republic on April 11, directly to the Russian government, and potentially Russian intelligence operations.

The connection comes via his father, Arsenii Borisovich Berezin, a Russian nuclear scientist – and also a member of the Russian-German Rotary Club. Berezin Sr died in 2020, but it is clear that his son would have grown up in very privileged circles.

The Rotary Club is an international organization that bills itself as “a global network of 1.4 million neighbours, friends, leaders, and problem solvers who see a world where people unite, and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.”

That is certainly one way to look at this development.

Why Is This Significant?

Nuclear scientists in every country, including Russia, are always drawn from the ranks of “party apparatchiks.” In other words, people who are provably loyal to the government and, at present, in Russia, Vladimir Putin. The Russian nuclear program has even more significance these days as Putin has repeatedly threatened to use weapons of mass destruction in the Ukraine.

This new information about Berezin’s father, however, directly links Berezin to senior political and military leaders in Russia if not establishes a direct link to military operations in Ukraine.

Even the suggestion that the son of this prominent scientist could have been directly involved in the Russian mob, as Igor Kekshin, the first internal Juicy Fields whistleblower, who has subsequently outed himself has already alleged, is already highly concerning. Not to mention more than suggests that the implications, already floated in the blogosphere for several years, that Juicy Fields was actually joint mob and FSB (Russian intelligence service) terrorist operation, aimed at Germany and Europe, are unfortunately all that much more plausible.

Ongoing Implications of Russian Intelligence Involvement

During the first stages of the investigation, after the exit scam, online allegations about the alleged connections of Bitner, to the FSB were widely discussed. So far, however, this is as far as it got. However, if true, this would immediately bring American intelligence operations into the equation as well – notably the CIA.

According to Twitterverse/Xverse investigator “Fool Nelson,” Bitner’s connection to the FSB allegedly came from the Steele Dossier, the highly controversial political opposition research report authored by Christopher Steele and published, without permission – also known as the Trump-Russia dossier in the leadup to the 2016 US Presidential elections.

The Steele dossier published by Buzzfeed in fact makes allegations that “Russia has extensive programme of state-sponsored offensive cyber operations. External targets include foreign governments and big corporations, especially banks. FSB leads on cyber with Russian apparatus.” Beyond this, in June 2016, the FSB was also allegedly approaching Russian Jews with ties to the United States with promises of financing their tech startups in exchange for providing back door access to their IT programs or being allowed to implant a virus in said software.”

This is exactly what the litigation team have surmised might have occurred in the Juicy Fields case. The evidence we have about the extent of the bank failures to stop investor transfers to the scam itself supports that there might have been this kind of issue at play too. Especially as ISX, the Australian Cypriot bank with ties directly to Berezin (the son), also created banking software that it sold to other institutions, globally.

Bitner’s connection to the FSB was repeatedly denied by Kekshin. However, he also alleged that Bitner was part of the Chechen, not Russian mob, and from the beginning, was always going to be a patsy, set up for assassination. The fact that there could have been (at least) members of the Russian and Chechen mob involved in such an operation would also suggest government coordination, and at a high level. Normally these two groups are fierce enemies.

It has been long known to Western intelligence sources that the Russian mob and FSB have coordinated on joint projects before. The current first deputy director of the FSB, Sergei Korolev, has already been accused of having mob ties.

Juicy Fields, by implication then, may have been far more than “just” a mob operation and further one with at least unofficial sanction by the Russian intelligence services.

This makes the entire matter not “just” a criminal one, but rather a matter of national security, for Germany and every other country where multiple investors and banks were also targeted by the scam.

Direct Link to Terrorism and Assassination

Last fall, after he returned to Russia, Kekshin’s car was blown up in retaliation for talking to the litigation team, the media, and the German police. This was the second assassination attempt last year. The guilty parties were subsequently caught by the Russian police.

The car that the erstwhile assassin were driving was registered to Berezin’s father, the nuclear scientist.

This is the first direct link and evidence that does more than suggest that this entire operation was far more official than anyone has so far suggested. It also unfortunately supports the theory that we have been developing for some time. Namely, that at least some of the laundered funds from the scam ended up financing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This also makes the scam’s focus on “cannabis” even more intriguing. For almost a decade, it has been an open secret that the Russian backed media platform, RTL, has avidly covered developments in cannabis legalization in the West, even though the entire topic has remained off the table in Russia directly. This has been, from sources, an attempt to increase discontent with Western leaders.

Kekshin himself, the former head of security for Juicy Fields, was initially ordered to assassinate Bitner in October 2021 because they were afraid he would talk to the police. In fact, he was already being investigated in Berlin by the LKA by this point.

However, Kekshin refused to assassinate Bitner and as of the beginning of 2022, found himself edged out of the inner circle of the scam leaders. He was fired by the time the Exit Scam occurred in July 2022.

Where Does This Information Come From?

The team can reveal that it is vetting a new whistleblower from inside the organization and based outside of Europe and vetting this source, plus combining the information we have from Kekshin.

However this development is significant and timely – thus its publication.

The fact that there is a connection between the head of the security for the scam and the father of its alleged leader cannot be ignored, particularly given the assassination attempt that came less than a month after Kekshin returned to Russia in August 2023.

This new information also supports the growing evidence that Berezin himself was a relatively minor figure in a much larger, international criminal organization and effort. Not to mention that Juicy Fields, apart from enriching the scammers, was actually designed to use Western money to at least partially finance the war in Ukraine and directly targeted and undermined critical infrastructure (banks) using cyber deception via social media and potentially back door access to the failed banks to perpetuate the scam.

Source: https://juicyfieldscase.com/juicy-fields-investigation-new-evidence-ties-russian-government-nuclear-program-and-german-russian-rotary-club-to-senior-fraud-leader/