Alexander Litvinenko at a press conference
By now the whole world has heard about the poisoning of ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who ingested a fatal dose of the radioactive isotope polonium-210 three weeks ago. Most American and British commentators have focused suspicion on the Kremlin, which allegedly wanted to end Litvinenko’s investigation into the recent murder of the Russian opposition journalist Anna Politovskaya. One month before he was poisoned, Litvinenko had publicly accused President Putin of ordering Politovskaya’s death.
Several British newspapers have suggested that rogue FSB agents may have acted without the Kremlin’s knowledge to kill a man they regarded as a traitor and to intimidate future defectors. This theory has been advanced by Oleg Gordievsky, himself the highest level KGB defector to defect during the Cold War, who was a friend of Litvinenko.
For their part, Russian media outlets have quoted government sources blaming Boris Berezovsky or other exiled oligarchs for killing Litvinenko as well as Politovskaya, in order to pin their deaths on the Kremlin. “The excessive number of calculated coincidences between the deaths of people, who defined themselves as the opposition to the Russian authorities, and major international events involving Vladimir Putin is a source of concern,” Sergei Yastrzhembsky, a top Kremlin aide, told the ITAR-TASS news agency. “I am far from believing in the conspiracy theory, but, in this case, I think that we are witnessing a well-rehearsed plan of the consistent discrediting of the Russian Federation and its chief.”
Litvinenko worked for the exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky
At the time of his death, Mr. Litvinenko had been on Boris Berezovsky’s payroll for several years. The relationship between the two men started in the mid-1990s, when Litvinenko was a Lieutenant Colonel serving in an elite FSB unit set up to combat the Russian mafia. In 1998, Litvinenko claimed that his FSB bosses ordered him to kill the powerful oligarch. Litvinenko instead called a press conference and announced the alleged assassination plot to the world, ending his FSB career. Litvinenko was subsequently charged with abusing his office and spent several months in jail awaiting trial. After being acquitted in 2000, he faced another trial and fled to exile in London, where Boris Berezovsky welcomed him with open arms. The oligarch funded Litvinenko’s explosive 2002 book, Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within, in which he claimed that the FSB was behind a series of apartment bombings that triggered the second Chechen War in 1999, when Putin directed the agency. In 2005, Litvinenko not only accused Russian security services of killing Anna Politovskaya, but also of training the Chechen terrorists who carried out the Beslan school massacre.
Berezovsky maintains that only a powerful security service like Russia’s FSB could obtain polonium 210, the rare radioactive isotope that was used to poison Litvinenko. Polonium 210 was used in the Soviet space program and is produced in potentially fatal quantities at a few closely guarded nuclear facilities around the world. The isotope is only lethal to human beings when ingested, injected, or absorbed through an open wound.
Scotland Yard investigators have detected polonium 210 traces at Litvinenko’s residence, at a sushi restaurant, at a hotel where he met his contacts, and at Berezovsky’s home and offices in London. British police sources have been quoted as saying that Mr. Litvinenko had many enemies in Russia and that they are pursuing all leads in the case, including the possibility of suicide.
Exiled oligarch Leonid Nevzlin claimed this week that Litvinenko was investigating the destruction of Yukos
Adding another layer of complexity to the investigation this week was Leonid Nevzlin, another exiled oligarch, who claimed that Litvinenko was investigating the Kremlin’s destruction of the Russian oil company Yukos in 2005. Nevzlin, a former business partner to the jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, currently resides in Israel, where he fled charges of tax evasion and murder in Russia. Last summer Oleg Pichugin, Nevzlin and Khodorkovsky's former chief of security for Yukos, was sentenced to twenty years in prison for multiple counts of murder.
Before the high profile murders of Politovskaya and Litvinenko, both Berezovsky and Nevzlin faced the threat of extradition back to Russia. In August, Russian federal prosecutors presented state’s evidence against the oligarchs to their counterparts in Britain and to a group of influential Israeli lawyers in Tel Aviv. Now neither oligarch is likely to face extradition for the foreseeable future.
The suggestion that perhaps powerful oligarchs have profited from Politovskaya and Litivinenko’s deaths has mostly been ignored or rejected by several commentators in the U.S., but has received more attention in Great Britain. John Podhoretz, blogging for National Review in response to a column by conservative commentator Pat Buchanan ("Was Putin Set Up?"), dismissed the Kremlin's accusations against Berezovsky and his London-based organization as anti-Semitic.
Chechen separatist spokesman Ahkmed Zakayev
In his 2000 book Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia, the late Forbes magazine journalist Paul Klebnikov accused the oligarch of ordering several contract killings against his business rivals. Klebnikov also charged Berezovsky of having links to the Chechen mafia and secretly negotiating with separatists in the breakaway Russian province behind President Yeltsin’s back during the 1994-95 war. Since arriving in London in 2000, Berezovsky has worked closely with Ahkmed Zakayev, the chief spokesman for the Chechen rebels, who also enjoys political asylum in Great Britain. Russian prosecutors have accused Zakayev of raising money for the late Shamil Basayev, the terrorist who bragged about planning the attack on the children of Beslan.
Suspects in the murder of Paul Klebnikov
Klebnikov was shot dead in Moscow on July 9, 2005. The Russian Supreme Court has ordered a new trial of several Chechen suspects in connection with the case, after their acquittal last year on related charges. Like Litvinenko, there were multiple parties that could have profited from his death, including the Iranian government whose overseas assets Klebnikov had started to expose with his piece, "Millionaire Mullahs". But unlike Litvinenko, Klebnikov’s death was not played out before the eyes of the world media, complete with a defiant last will and testament issued by Berezovsky’s spokesman.
Comments
Maybe he was a Chechnian sympathiser and poisoned himself and others as he committed suicide.
Posted by: fd | November 29, 2006 4:32 PM
Antiwar has an interesting theory on who may be behind the murder:
"...In an assassination, one must ask: Cui bono? To whose benefit? Who would gain from the poisoning of Litvinenko?
What benefit could Putin conceivably realize from the London killing of an enemy of his regime, who had just become a British citizen? Why would the Russian president, at the peak of his popularity, with his regime awash in oil revenue and himself playing a strong hand in world politics, risk a breach with every Western nation by ordering the public murder of a man who was more of a nuisance than a threat to his regime?
Yet, listening to some Western pundits on the BBC and Fox News, one would think Putin himself poisoned Litvinenko. Who else, they ask, could have acquired polonium-210, the rare radioactive substance used to kill Litvinenko? Who else had the motive to eliminate the ex-agent who had dedicated his life to exposing the crimes of the Kremlin?"
And if you want to buy Polonium-210, you can do it on-line, legally, no license required, you can buy Polonium-210 for $69 (sixty nine US dollars), see "Alpha-only radiation emitters" section.
Posted by: Ivan Sablezubov | November 29, 2006 7:04 PM
Very murky. Tentacles reach so easily into the democratic world.
It's good to see the situation is being taken seriously by the British people.
Tragic for his family- These things always are.
Posted by: laurie parker-stuart | November 29, 2006 8:08 PM
Excellent summary of the facts. From a Western point of view, the theory promoted by the Russian press (that Berezovsky was involved, and the British press are just trying to discredit Russia) looks pretty desperate. Russia may have left communism behind, but they haven't managed to ditch the paranoia.
Posted by: James | November 30, 2006 2:46 AM
You know, I'm tired of reading things like this; it doesn't read any different than any ther organization out there simply reporting on this.
One day, some day soon, there will be a leader of people who will rise, who will take charge of citizens. Once this happens, your, yes the privleged lives of this blog, amongst others, will have no place to hide.
This blog kind of makes me sick a bit, for you claim to repesent the people, yet you back those in power who are corrupt.
You back them by that insane building that stands tall in their power.
With as much respect as you can understand!
John
Posted by: John | November 30, 2006 3:44 AM
Does somebody has the birth date of Alexander Litvinenko
Thanks
Elias
Posted by: elias | November 30, 2006 8:52 AM
And if you want to buy Polonium-210, you can do it on-line, legally, no license required, you can buy Polonium-210 for $69 (sixty nine US dollars), see "Alpha-only radiation emitters" section.
---
It can be found where the polonium actually came from. Till then saying "it can be bought for 69$ " is a distraction. Find out where the polonium came from
Posted by: anon | November 30, 2006 11:50 AM
This murder case surely gets stranger and stranger by the day:
"...All the locations except Litvinenko's home are in west London, separated by about a mile... The building near the Millennium Hotel contains a business intelligence company, Titon International Ltd , whose CEO was a former U.K. Special Services director, and Erinys UK Ltd., which has done security, logistics, and crisis management work in Iraq and other places.
The other location reportedly houses an office of Boris Berezovsky, the self-exiled tycoon and Kremlin critic wanted in Russia on money-laundering charges. Businesses listed at the address include a fund adviser, an investment firm, an energy company, and offices of the newspaper publisher Metro International.
The official explanation for the visit to Berezovsky's office is simple... However, the [Litvinenko's] visit to Erinys/Titon International is a bit harder to explain away as a mundane event."
Posted by: Ivan Sablezubov | November 30, 2006 12:47 PM
"And if you want to buy Polonium-210, you can do it on-line, legally, no license required, you can buy Polonium-210 for $69 (sixty nine US dollars), see "Alpha-only radiation emitters" section."
From said website:
You would need about 15,000 of our Polonium-210 needle sources at a total cost of about $1 million - to have a toxic amount.
Posted by: Blaine | November 30, 2006 9:33 PM
You know, I have a long documented history of making a horse's ass of myself! :(
This blog doesn't make me sick. I like this blog actually! I'm just tired and don't understand a few things!
Sorry, again!
John
Posted by: John | December 1, 2006 5:22 AM
Disappointingly Russians are stupid. They didn't think scintillation detectors would be used to trace Radium-F - after all we built atomic weapons long before Klaus Fuchs showed the Russians how to do it.
So they thought they would teach Berezovsky and his Chechen friends a lesson. Really stupid.
They have shown the world that the same primitivism that emerged from Russia under Dzerzhinsky and that little dwarf Yezhov still runs amok abroad.
I wonder who tests Putin's food and if he gets to do so twice ?
Posted by: Voyager | December 3, 2006 1:19 PM
Why is your country (Russia) controlled by a group of KGB thugs, and ex-military hardliners? They operate more like a mafia group/criminal gang- (If they are responsible for these killings). Why has Russia regressed back to Soviet practices?
What are the true intentions of these mysterious men (Putin & Company)? They seem to be out of control. And is there any chance that things will ever change for the better there…and that Russia will want to seek Democracy and will want to truly become a part of the world of civilized nations? Is it possible for Russia and the Western World to have friendlier relations?
Interesting Commentary Here:
http://mirroronamerica.blogspot.com/2006/11/britian-and-eu-face-diplomatic-dilemma.html
Posted by: American Blogger | December 4, 2006 3:33 AM
Excellent explanation of the conspiracy theory - both its facts and the detractors!
For a concise summary of the whole story, see:
http://politicalworld.wordpress.com/2006/12/09/russian-revenge/
Posted by: Daisi145 | December 10, 2006 12:04 AM
Who are you considering civilized country USA? Right, wrong. The latest developments of Mr. Bush is very civilised. The bullshit on WMD to get to the oil. Very civilised and this is the only one encounter. So stop being scared of Russia, look closer at your own governemnt.
Posted by: Misha | December 11, 2006 3:45 AM
Traces of P210 are being found all over Europe... Why would the Russian government spend what they are now saying cost $10million, to kill someone.
http://www.crusade-media.com/news12.html
Posted by: Juroy | December 26, 2006 4:52 PM
I do not buy the suicide theory, and I find it most disturbing that the media feel it necessary to implicate Putin in the poisoning plot, surely it makes no sense to the majority that the leader would have very little to gain and much to lose by this. I hope to hear a more rational argument other than that he is in power therefore it must be Putin, Berezovsky or one of his cronies are far more likely candidates for the killing of Litvinenko and others surrouding and opposing Berezovsky who have been murdered and their killers never brought to justice.
Let us not forget the close ties between yeltsin and berezovsky and the corruption under that regime, after all Gorbachev did his best to end the KGB only to be deposed later that year and replaced by Yeltsin who set about reforming the KGB under another name, all with Berezovsky at his side. Putin is opposed to the Chechen rebels, Berezovsky seems to have close ties to the Chechens. Could it be that Russias recent extradition petition from UK back to Russia to face numerous corruption and murder charges will now be postponed or cancelled in the wake of the murder of Litvinenko, the UK has strict rules about extradition and will likely be unable to extradite berezovsky now as he can now claim to fear for his own safety. Could this be a good enough reason for the killing of Russian dissidents?
I would like to hear more about Alexander Litvinenko's recent activities since the publication of his book(funded by Berezovsky) and his investigation into the murder of his colleague Anna Politovskaya.
Posted by: Trish | December 27, 2006 6:07 PM