Surikov tried to persuade me to order a cake. I refused. He seemed genuinely surprised.

"The cakes here are really good."

Eventually we settled on another round of coffees. It was getting dark outside.

"Security in Eurasia depends on how the struggle unfolds within the Kremlin. If Igor Sechin and his allies succeed in directing Russia into a Chinese-allied one party state then war is a possibility in Crimea and the Ukraine. If those that want integration with the West on their own terms win then it will not happen. I am an old fashioned European-style 1970s Social-Democrat. I don't want Russia to be like China."

Slightly baffled at the idea of Surikov hoisting himself into the company of Michael Foot and Francois Mitterrand, I pushed him back towards politics. 

"Why do you think that, and are there many who share your opinions in military intelligence?" I probed.

He smiled.

"Of course there are."

Then something like an emotion passed over an expressionless face.

"I believe this because I believe that Russians are....Europeans."

He left me his packet of cigarettes, paid the bill and strolled off very quickly.

The Russian press remained almost universally silent at the news of the death of Anton Surikov, perhaps frightened to mention such a man in a country where the Kremlin keeps such a tight grip on the media.

Days before the death of Surikov the luxury express-train between Moscow and St. Petersburg was struck by an explosion. 39 People died and 95 were murdered. A neo-Nazi and an Islamist group that regularly claim responsibility for attacks they couldn't possibly have carried out both claimed to be the killers. From his Caucasian palace Ramzan Kadyrov expressed his doubt over the direct of involvement of the Islamist group that claimed it was behind the attack.

The express-train was the one that Putin's boys rode to St. Petersburg for the weekend.

It looked like a personal attack against ‘the Tsar' after an autumn that seen a surprisingly good run for the ‘Europeans' in the Kremlin. Ex-military and secret service officials occupied now only around half of the posts in the administration, down from a high of over two thirds a few years earlier.

Perhaps if he was still alive Anton Surikov might have been able to tell me who had really done it.