A former Russian KGB and FSB general believed to have been the source of the information contained in the infamous “golden showers” dossier on President Donald Trump, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, was found dead in mysterious circumstance in his car on Boxing Day, December 26.
The death of Oleg Erovinkin, former senior KGB and FSB officer, has sparked claims that he was murdered by the Kremlin because of his alleged involvement in the compilation of the Trump dossier, the Telegraph reports .
Erovinkin is alleged to have been the Russian source of the information leaked to the public through Steele’s dossier on Trump. Steele claimed in his leaked intelligence report dated July 19, 2016, that he obtained the information from a source close to Igor Sechin, a former Russian deputy prime minister who now heads the state-owned oil company Rosneft.
Based on Steele’s comments in his intelligence report, it is believed widely that Erovinkin, a key aide to Sechin who reportedly served as a liaison officer between Sechin and the Russian president Vladimir Putin, was the Russian source of the “golden showers” dossier.
Sechin was mentioned several times in Steele’s report.
According to the Russian state-owned news agency, RIA Novosti, Erovinkin was found dead in Moscow in the back of his black Lexus car on Boxing Day. The news agency said that the Russian authorities commenced a “large-scale” investigation into the circumstances of the death of the former KGB and FSB chief.
“A large-scale investigation has been commenced in the area. Erovinkin’s body was sent to the FSB morgue.”
According to the Russian authorities, preliminary postmortem examination found no cause of death, but investigations were still ongoing. Unconfirmed official reports later claimed that Erovinkin died of a heart attack.
Has this been confirmed as fact? Ex-KGB chief Oleg Erovinkin who helped w/ Trump dossier found dead https://t.co/IpR0jc4V55 #TheResistance
— noclosedminds (@noclosedminds) January 28, 2017
But the mysterious circumstances of the death, soon after rumors emerged that he may have been Steele’s Sechin-linked Russian contact, have sparked allegations that he was murdered as part of efforts by the Kremlin to tidy up the mess caused by the leaked dossier on Trump.
Russian affairs experts and multiple local media reports alleged that Erovinkin may have been murdered due to his contribution to Steele’s leaked Trump dossier.
Steele’s report claimed that Trump and his aides had close business and financial ties with the Russian state and that Putin’s regime had been “cultivating, supporting and assisting Trump for at least five years.”
The document also claimed that the Kremlin had obtained a video showing Trump watching hired prostitutes urinating on the bed in the presidential suite at the Moscow Ritz Carlton where former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama slept while visiting Moscow.
The document alleged that the Kremlin could use the “golden shower” video to blackmail Trump.
“Trump’s unorthodox behavior in Russia over the years had provided the authorities there with enough embarrassing material on the now Republican presidential candidate to be able to blackmail him if they so wished.”
Oleg Erovinkin served as a general in the KGB and was a key aide to a former prime minister named in the explosi… https://t.co/gMODfeIBcP
— Thus Spake (@thus_spake) January 29, 2017
According to the document, the Kremlin’s active support for Trump in the 2016 general election was part of a wider Putin-endorsed strategy to weaken the West by promoting “splits and divisions.”
The dossier had circulated in the U.S. intelligence community and the media for months before President Barack Obama received an official intelligence briefing about it.
BuzzFeed published the dossier soon after the FBI briefed Obama.
But Trump reacted angrily to the allegations contained in the leaked dossier, describing the dossier as “fake news.”
U.S. intelligence agencies took the allegations seriously and investigated them. But they admitted that they found no evidence supporting the lurid allegations against Trump. Media outlets that investigated the claims also said they found no evidence that the alleged “golden shower” video exists.
BuzzFeed came under heavy criticism from its peers for publishing the dossier after admitting that the claims were unsubstantiated.
In a recent blog post, Christo Grocev, a Bulgarian expert in Russians security issues, claimed it was likely that Erovinkin was the source close to Sechin that Steele referred to in his report.
“Insiders have described Erovinkin to me alternately as ‘Sechin’s treasurer’ and ‘the go-between between Putin and Sechin,’” Grocev wrote. “One thing that everyone seems to agree — both in public and private sources — is that Erovinkin was Sechin’s closest associate.”
“I have no doubt that at the time Erovinkin died, Putin had Steele’s Trump dossier on his desk,” Grocev continued. “He would – arguably – have known whether the alleged… story is based on fact or fiction.”
“[Putin] had a motive to seek and find the mole. He would have had to conclude that Erovinkin was at least a person of interest.”
But, according to the Telegraph , some experts in Russian security issues have expressed skepticism about the theory that Erovinkin was murdered by the Russian state to cover up the truth about the Trump dossier. According to some experts, it is unlikely that Putin would have ordered the assassination of a senior official in the circumstances and manner that rumors suggested.
[Featured Image by Alexander Nemenov/AP Images]