"Go forth and multiply."
You don't send your thugs here and kill our citizens and expect to get away with it, Pooty my lad. There will be consequences.
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 11/24/2006 3:08:50 PM PST by MadIvan
Alexander Litvinenko’s final testament, released after his death on Thursday evening, is deeply moving. It is also political dynamite. He thanked the hospital that battled to save him. He thanked his friends and the British authorities and paid tribute to the country that had granted him citizenship a month before his death. And dramatically accusing President Putin of having no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value, he said the Russian leader may have succeeded in silencing one man, “but a howl of protest from around the world will reverberate in your ears for the rest of your life”.
His death could not have come at a more awkward time for Mr Putin, who was meeting European Union leaders at an annual summit in Finland. During a tense press conference, he attempted to play down the case, offering condolences to the family but accusing Mr Litvinenko’s associates of playing politics with his death. But although his hosts did not bring up the murder in the talks on Russia’s long-term relations with the EU, it has strengthened suspicions of Mr Putin’s authoritarian administration and added to the ugly list of political murders and harassment of opponents that has heightened EU concern over Russia.
Those who should be pressing Moscow hardest to explain its role in this squalid assassination are the British police. This must now be a murder investigation. The hospital discovery that Mr Litvinenko was probably killed with polonium 210, a radioactive isotope, points to a sophisticated plot and to assassins able to obtain a substance not readily available except to those with considerable backing. The suspicion must fall on the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB. It had motive, means and opportunity. In exile in London, Mr Litvinenko, himself a former FSB agent, taunted and mocked the present head of Russia’s spy agency as well as Mr Putin. Goaded into a vendetta against a traitor, they may well have reacted as Henry II’s knights did on imagining their King’s desire to be rid of Thomas à Becket.
Two other factors increase the suspicion. First, the Russian parliament recently voted specifically to allow the FSB to undertake assassination missions abroad fighting terrorism. In doing so, it widened the definition of terrorists to include those who gave moral support to Chechen rebels and others seeking to undermine the State. FSB operatives, freed from any constraint, may well have seen Mr Litvinenko in that category.
Secondly, the FSB, though politically accountable, has been given an almost free hand by the President, who grew up in that same culture. It had no need to seek permission from the top. It knew that Mr Putin needed to maintain plausible deniability of all its actions. At the same time, it could easily point — as it now has — to the murky world of Russian exiles, some of whom are unsavoury characters and who are widely believed to have had links with organised crime groups while enriching themselves in Russia.
That murky world aside, Mr Putin has been deeply embarrassed by the murder. His open quest to make Russia respected again around the world is not helped by accusations of running a gangster state. He must, therefore, offer British investigators full co-operation and total access to all those they might want to question. A refusal or even prevarication must be taken as evidence of complicity. Nor should Russia be given the impression that this is a small episode that will be forgotten in a few weeks. Any policy of trying to tough it out should be met with an even tougher response from Britain. Mr Litvinenkno was a citizen of this country. His murder is an affront to our laws, our democracy and our way of life.
"Go forth and multiply."
You don't send your thugs here and kill our citizens and expect to get away with it, Pooty my lad. There will be consequences.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
This was a terrible mistake for Putin.
It will not fade away.
We will remember that poison is the weapon of a coward and we will remember who the coward is.
Putin won't answer for anything. Who's gonna make him?
I looked in Putie's eyes and all I saw was a death ray.
Putin spoke on this. He says there are a bunch of conspiracy nuts out there. He was nowhere near England and doesn't like sushi.
Regards, Ivan
<< Putin won't answer for anything. Who's gonna make him? >>
Snatcher "Surrender Hong Kong" (Or is it "Attack Stanley!?") Thatcher will stare him (Or is it talk him?) down!
(Or will instruct the poodle to: "Send Christopher 'PLO' Patten and my son, ["Make His!"] Mark?")
Ivan what this peace sign
Vlady is bad news
Well, Bush certainly fell for Putin's snake oil. I hope the Brits act like a sovereign nation and gets to the bottom of this. This is one thing that cannot stand. Murdering the citizens of another nation on their own soil is well over the line. At least we know what we are now dealing with. Putin is no friend. He is a snake in the grass.
has anyone checked out the potential SOROS connection?
Actually Bush and Cheney have been critisizing Putin every step of the way. From the Ukraine, the Baltics, Georgia, Belorusia...I think you Richard have fallen for it.
Putin reeks of this and he better order some serious investigations but here's one possibility.
Just to put my muzzie conspiracy hat on - the use of such a hard to obtain radioactive agent points too obviously at a government operation making me consider the possibility of a setup by forces seeking to bring down the Putin government. Remember that muzzies are going to be the majority in Russia in a few years and Putin's not their friend.
How can you prove the negative?
How do you know that he did it?
And he's selling sophisticated missiles to Iran. Bush likes this guy and admires his soul? Yeesh!
Either somebody in the FSB jumped the shark and conducted the assassination without much thought, or Putin does not give a rats a$$ what anybody feels about this.
I doubt anybody is going to do very much about this, considering Europe's energy dependence on Russia.
It's not clear that Alexander Litvinenko, who was virtually an unknown, was a threat to Russia's leader Putin. Killing him, if they did kill him, only brought him to the attention of the world.
But the Russians have done many stupid things in the past. They are a spooky people.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.