[GarySpFc]

"We have to put this in a historical context," he said.

"Litvinenko's last job within the FSB was heading up the anti-corruption unit and he discovered a lot of corruption there and made a lot of enemies within the KGB."
When Yeltsin broke the KGB into different agencies such as the FSB and the SVR, the majority of its members stayed on but some went into the Duma and a third group went into legitimate business, he said.

But a "murky bunch" went into what was known as the Russian mafia.

[B4Ranch]

If he was killed by a gov't team, the matter of who killed him will never be resolved. Misinformation and disinformation are being spread in the media like warm butter.

[sgtbono2002]

Thats the thing I cant understand. Why did we have to wait until he was dead for them to discover he was radioactive and pelonium was the killer?

[bjs1779]

Is there anyone here who can translate Russian? I am curious about what he is talking about.

Alexander Litvinenko at the Frontline Club

[Cicero]

Alex Pravda, an expert in Russia foreign policy

Well named, indeed.

Frankly, this is a bunch of nonsense, the leftist flakes at the BBC, now one of the most ideologically corrupt news organizations in the world, sticking up for their old friends in the Soviet Nomenklatura.

[Chad_the_Impaler]

I not sure how reliable the following is:

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/thomas112506.htm

MI6 believe the Polonium 210, which killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, could have come from China.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/dastych112506.htm

[Grut]

Although the sophisticated nature of the poison suggested it could have come from the state....

Not really. Polonium 210 is used in the "Staticmaster" brush, which has been around forever. Amazon will sell you a Polonium replacement element for $13.79.

[Bon mots]

Yes.

Very mysterious.

[Yaelle]

Given the days of uncertainty about what killed him, the matter of who killed him may never be resolved.

So let's not even try?

[Yaelle]

From little green footballs, I saw this link:

Radio station Echo Moskvy reported Friday that Litvinenko converted to Islam. Litvinenko, it said, was read the Yasin surah, or prayer, and given Islamic death rites by an imam invited to the dying spy's hospital bedside.

Ekho, a prominent liberal broadcaster funded by state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom, said Litvinenko would be buried in a Muslim cemetery in London. The station cited Chechenpress, the official news agency of the wartorn republic's insurgency.

A statement dictated by Litvinenko two days before his death and read by friends on Friday said nothing about a conversion to Islam.

A commenter on LGF said that it seems suspicious about this deathbed rites / conversion story, and the source above cites Chechenpress, as if the powers that be in Russia WANT to blame "the Chechen rebels," which the poisoned guy himself said was really a drummed up situation for Putin to obtain the martial laws he has.

[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.

[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?

[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.