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Stratfor Doesn’t Exclude Belarusian “Trace” In Pavel Sheremet’s Murder

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Stratfor Doesn’t Exclude Belarusian “Trace” In Pavel Sheremet’s Murder
PAVEL SHEREMET

The US private intelligence presented a report about the journalist’s murder.

A well-known journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was killed in the result of a car explosion in Kiev on July 20, in large part was victimized by his own predictability, experts of the American private intelligence and analysis company Stratfor consider.

He used to go to work at one and the same time and almost on the same route, and parked his car in the street unattended. That gave the opportunity to plan his murder, organized by a team of professionals. On the other hand, according to the US private intelligence, the circumstances of Sheremet’s murder will render support to professionals in the field of security in preventing such attempts in the future, apostrophe.com.ua writes.

Around 7:40 am on July 20, Pavel Sheremet went to work in his car. Parking in Kiev, as in any other big city, is difficult, so he parked his car at the top of Ivan Franko street, a few hundred meters from the building. From there he headed straight for the busy junction at Bohdan Khmelnytsky street. When Sheremet turned to Khmelnitsky street, his car exploded, and the journalist died from injuries sustained as a result of the explosion.

The motives of the crime are obscure, Stratfor reports. Pavel Sheremet used to criticize Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian politicians, so not a few people would like him to go silent. However, while investigating such a kind of attack, the question “how” is often no less important than the question “why.” Finally, the understanding of the crime commitment gives professionals in the field of security an opportunity to prevent them in the future.

Regardless of the motives, the nature of the attack suggests that the perpetrators of the crime are well trained and experienced.

“Ukrainian researchers have confirmed that Sheremet was killed by a remote-controlled device. This means that it was installed in the vehicle in advance and worked remotely,” – Stratfor states. Five hours before the explosion CCTV monitoring showed a man and a woman walking down Ivan Franko street towards Sheremet’s car, which had been parked unattended in the street.

In the video a halting man stops in front of the car and starts to watch the woman, taking something out of the bag. She disappears behind Sheremet’s car for a moment, and then they both go further down the street. Probably they fixed on the car a so-called sticky bomb with magnets (suspected Israeli agents used them at attempted assassination of two Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran in 2010).

At the moment of the explosion Sheremet’s car had passed a busy crosswalk. Apparently, the device contained a small amount of explosive (about 1 pound), which was enough to produce the relevant effect without causing collateral damage, although amateurs usually use more powerful explosives, to make sure they achieve their goals. By contrast to this, Sheremet’s murder was well organized and cleanly executed.

The site of the attack also shows that it has been well planned. Going to work, Sheremet could choose five different routes. However, all but one of them passed through the junction between Ivan Franko and Bohdan Khmelnytsky streets. The route to and from work is one of the most predictable scenarios of daily life, and it provides an excellent opportunity for an assassination. The attackers knew that Pavel Sheremet was going to travel through the junction.

According to the selected scenario, a spotter had to spy out the victim's car and set off the explosion at the right time. The junction between Ivan Franko and Bohdan Khmelnytsky streets, where there is a McDonalds, cafes and hotels, gives a lot of good viewpoints for the spotter. It’s hard to operate a moving target, but the explosion was very timely, showing that the one who pulled the trigger had a steady hand.

If Sheremet had paid a little more money to leave his car in the garage, it would have stop the attackers because of the risk to be seen, Stratfor suggest.

However, as most of the people, Sheremet apparently lived a routine life. He was quite predictable for the attackers, although if he had changed his route and departure time, it would have hindered them from committing the crime.

Presumably, planning the killing, the attackers gathered extensive information about Pavel Sheremet’s habits.

The journalist’s murder was not the first of its kind and will not be the last. However, despite the skill of the attackers, it was not inevitable. After reviewing existing materials, security experts can take measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Earlier, the chief editor of charter97.org Natallia Radzina stated that Belarus’ special services might have been involved in Pavel Sheremet's murder.

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