The mystery of Litvinenko's death

BBC News ^ | 12/24/2006 | Tom Geoghegan

[Yaelle]

It doesn't seem like Putin would be WISHING him a long, healthy life, now, does it:

Former KGB spy unbowed in criticism 2006/11

By JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago

LONDON - Before his death, former spy Alexander Litvinenko was unbowed in criticizing alleged abuses by his homeland‘s government and relentlessly pursued information about the death of an investigative journalist who also had challenged President Vladimir Putin ‘s regime.

In an interview conducted hours before he lost consciousness Tuesday — two days before his death from radiation poisoning — Litvinenko acknowledged fearing he would die, and claimed the Kremlin was directly involved in his illness.

Just weeks before, on Oct. 19, Litvinenko was in the audience during a media discussion at the Frontline Club for journalists.

"My name is Alexander Litvinenko, and I am a former KGB and FSB agent," he said, referring to the Russian initials of the former Soviet secret service and its successor, Russia‘s Federal Security Service. The audience murmured and twisted in their chairs to watch the sandy-haired, stylish man.

"Somebody has asked me directly who is guilty of Anna‘s death? And I can directly answer you: It is Mr. Putin, president of the Russian Federation," Litvinenko said.

Litvinenko joined the Russian counterintelligence forces in 1988 and rose to the rank of colonel in the Federal Security Service. He began specializing in terrorism and organized crime in 1991, then was transferred to the agency‘s most secretive department on criminal organizations in 1997.

Following his public claim, Litvinenko spend nine months in jail the following year on charges of abuse of office. He was later acquitted, and moved to in 2000 to London, where he received asylum and later became a British citizen.

His 2003 book, "The FSB Blows Up Russia," accused the security agency of staging bombings at Russian apartment buildings in 1999 that killed more than 300 people and were blamed by the Kremlin on Chechen separatists. The bombings were followed by the second war in a decade in Chechnya , a predominantly Muslim region in southern Russia.

I'd believe the dead guy over Putin myself.

[spanalot]

You can give up on Gary - he'll never admit that the main suspects are KGB thugs

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/wireless/story/0,8262,4-20812178,00.html

[JasonC]

has been dismissed? passive voice, only the KGB has done so. Chechens aren't exactly known for having rare transuranic isotopes lying around in lethal quantities. It is all transparent, Putin does not remotely care who knows he is a murderer.

[GarySpFc]

Unfortunately, I do not have your certitude, but will wait for the evidence. I do have an opinion, but then again it likely will not be the one you want to hear.

[Yaelle]

It is all transparent, Putin does not remotely care who knows he is a murderer.

Hell hath no fury like a superpower scorned.

[M. Espinola]

There is a lot we do know already. When the Soviet tyrants were 'defeated', it was hoped Russia would become something resembling a democracy of sorts, complete with a full range of freedoms. What has happened instead is a slide toward another totalitarian police state. A number of freedoms – including freedom of the press - have been severely curtailed by the Putin régime.

It does not take much to figure out that KGB Putin is eliminating all his prominent Russian critics, one after the other. The question is, whose next, and will these assassinations remain only Russians exposing the Kremlin ruler's ruthless reign?

[JasonC]

Nobody cares about the opinion of traitors who sold out their country years ago and now live only to shill for foreign tyrants.

[JasonC]

Actually it does, and to spare. As many cynics will find out presently.

[JasonC]

He decided that since communism was a world-historical loser, it was time to go back to fascism. That is all. And it is very much for export and includes a full "nukes for nutjobs" civilization-poisoning program.

[Yaelle]

I am not a cynic and I hope you are right.

[JasonC]

I meant the hell part literally. Mortality has not been repealed. I don't know why anybody would "hope" in the matter one way or the other, but it sure won't change anything, so knock yourself out.

[jonrick46]

Polonium-210, because of its abundance of neutrons, can be used as a nuclear trigger. I suspect that something very sinister was going on that is being covered up. What happened to Litvinenko gives us clues to some difficult questions that have some very frightening conclusions. Could someone have had contact with this element in some type of bomb making activities in London? Whoever had contact with Polonium-210 was contaminated enough to cause the accidental ingestation by Litvinenko. My big question is this: what was Polonium-210 doing in anyone's possession in the first place? Is London the first to be hit with a nuclear strike with the support of Russia's Secret Service?

[Yaelle]

Sorry. I misunderstood your post. I thought you were saying that either this guy's death or the Russian "footprint" on the world right now re terrorism and domination WOULD garner a serious and measured reaction from the West. I didn't get that you were going a little deeper! :)

[advertising guy]

my gut tells me different than most here,my gut says it is old USSR types throwing Pootie Poot under the bus so as not to get too comfy with America and are leading insurgents willingly and unwillingly.

[GarySpFc]

Keep an eye on Berezovsky.

[GarySpFc]

Nobody cares about the opinion of traitors who sold out their country years ago and now live only to shill for foreign tyrants.

Unlike you, I am a Christian. My first loyalty is to the Lord, not Russia, not American, and not even family. And unlike you, I am willing to let the evidence play out and land on the guilty party. If Putin and the FSB are guilty, then I pray they are exposed. I want to see truth and justice prevail. However, conspiracy theorists have already determined the guilt of Putin, and simply cannot allow for other possibilities.

[advertising guy]

ditto Berezovsky and on this post you made my point.............touche'

[JasonC]

Do you want the evidence to play out on Putin shilling for Ahmadinejad too? Or are you still waiting for a brighter flashing neon sign? You are in denial about Putin's nature, it is plain as a pikestaff. Your human motives in that are perhaps understandable, but it is bias and hope, not evidence or reasoning. Nothing is worth standing with and defending such conduct.

[Thunder90]

If killing dissidents is condoned in the Russian Orthodox Church, than I will believe you.

[GarySpFc]

I am a Christian. You are a conspiracy theorist, which is a complete denial the Lord was responsible for the fall of the Iron Curtain. We might as well be on different planets..