Moscow points the finger of blame at billionaire exile Boris Berezovsky

The Times ^ | November 29, 2006 | Tony Halpin, Richard Beeston and Daniel McGrory

[MadIvan]

The Kremlin mounted a concerted campaign yesterday to point the finger of suspicion at the billionaire businessman Boris Berezovsky over the death of his friend, Alexander Litvinenko, after traces of radioactive polonium-210 were found at the London offices of the exiled Russian oligarch.

Senior figures in the Russian establishment lined up to implicate Mr Berezovsky, who employed and funded the former KGB spy.

The billionaire, who has been granted asylum in Britain, last night issued a statement mourning Mr Litvinenko’s death and saying that he had “complete faith” that Scotland Yard would conduct a “thorough and professional investigation”.

Detectives are understood to want to question Mr Berezovsky in further detail about the events of November 1, the day that Mr Litvinenko fell ill.

Mr Berezovsky has declined to explain publicly why Mr Litvinenko, who was recently given British citizenship, visited his headquarters in Mayfair that day.

The billionaire has accused President Putin’s regime of being behind the murder.

In his first comment on the Litvinenko affair Tony Blair yesterday insisted that no “diplomatic or political barrier” would be permitted to obstruct the police inquiry, even if the evidence pointed to a statesponsored killing.

The Prime Minister, who was on a brief stopover in Copenhagen on his way to the Nato summit in Riga, said that Mr Litvinenko’s death was being treated as a “very, very serious matter”.

He added: “We are determined to find out what happened and who is responsible.”

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office declared that it was ready to assist the British police. A spokesman said that British detectives would be welcome to come to Moscow and would receive the Government’s full co-operation.

Mr Blair has been kept informed of developments in the inquiry, but he is not scheduled to meet President Putin in Riga. So far the Prime Minister has not spoken to Mr Putin about the case, but will do so when the time is “appropriate”.

Mr Putin has strenuously denied that the Russian authorities had anything to do with Mr Litvinenko’s death.

Police have questioned Mario Scaramella, an Italian nuclear expert who met Mr Litvinenko at a sushi bar in Piccadilly, where evidence of the radioactive poison was found. So far polonium-210 has been found at seven locations across London.

At one of those sites — 25 Grosvenor Street, the offices of Erinys, an international security company — a spokesman said that Mr Litvinenko did not work for them but had been visiting a friend there.

As Kremlin sources made their claims against Mr Berezovsky, a number of prominent politicians in Moscow named him publicly as a key figure in the affair.

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Duma’s foreign affairs committee, said that Mr Litvinenko was linked with “certain oligarchs, including Mr Berezovsky, who in recent years have been deprived of the chance to buy corrupt power with stolen money, and apparently cannot accept this”.

In the past Russia has tried to extradite him on financial charges but the request was refused by Britain after Mr Berezovsky argued that the charge was politically motivated.

Valery Dyatlenko, a deputy head of the security committee in the Duma, Russia’s lower house, told state television: “The death of Litvinenko — for Russia, for the security services — means nothing . . . I think this is another game of some kind by Berezovsky.”

Toxicologists tested for the presence of polonium-210 at more locations in Central London that had been visited by Mr Litvinenko on the day he fell ill.

Eight people have been sent for further tests at a specialist clinic by the Health Protection Agency to check for contamination. The agency has received more than 1,100 calls from members of the public worried that they might have been exposed to radiation, but officials insisted that there was little likelihood of any risk.

As the scale of the scare grew, John Reid, the Home Secretary, issued another statement that the risk to the public was minimal.

Special precautions will be in place for a Home Office pathologist to carry out a postmortem examination as well as a “special examination” of Mr Litvinenko’s body on Friday.

Andrew Reid, the Inner North London Coroner, said that the examination was necessary to fully investigate the cause of death.

[b2stealth]

>I have provided my credentials to Jim Robinson, and others on Free Republic

We all know your credentials, you are here 24/7 protecting KGB - full time KGB troll.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

By your logic it doesn't matter whom Putin helps as long as we have bigger weapon?

The TorM1 has limitations that are easily exploited by an attacker (most notably, maximum ceiling), and Russia is selling very few of them. Frankly, I can think of weapons systems that Russia can sell in large numbers to Iran that would be far more worrisome--and they haven't sold them to Iran. Instead, they have sold Iran material that is far less useful, in return for Iran's hard-won foreign exchange. (Yes, oil is higher than before, but even Iran has a finite amount of money.)

[b2stealth]

So did Putin sell weapons to Iran or not??

[gondramB]

>>c'mon, pal, your talking about Massachusettes.

Pukin' Putin really over played his hand.
I'm sure anyone could get Polonium 210 from your nearest
pharmacy. <<

Actually, anybody can buy Polonium210 -just not in this quantity - its even legal to ship it in much smaller quantities than was used for this assasination. Its a useful point source for research or teaching.

http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm

As to who did - that's an open question. Putin, somebody trying to discredit Putin, a state operation but without Putin's knowledge all seem possible. The one clear thing from the radioactive trail is it ties back to Russia.

[gondramB]

The problem with the argument that Russians (or the French or whomever) sell inferior weapons to outlaw states misses a critical point - that they don't make it clear the how the U.S will defeat those weapons and thus they embolden these outlaw states into rash actions that result in great loss of life.

More of theirs than ours, to be sure, but still its bad.

[JasonC]

A different Russian billionaire, financier to Zhironovsky or however you spell it, was almost killed and badly burned in a car wreck in the riveria very recently. A woman was with him, some newscaster. She flew off to Moscow, he's in the hospital. The story is he lost control of the car (a borrowed Ferrari). The coincidences are piling up fast enough, though, that I venture to guess he was busy with something besides driving, at a minimum.

[JasonC]

The excuses people make for murdering pyschopaths... Of course it is Putin. Acton's dictum...

[gondramB]

>>The excuses people make for murdering pyschopaths... Of course it is Putin. Acton's dictum...<<

I would certainly bet on Putin if I had to bet.

But there are multiple possibilities...

Assuming it was an act of the Russian government there are still multiple possiblities:

Putin authorizing it directly or with what they consider "plausable deniability."

but who knows.

It could even be policy - if a CIA agent defected to Russia and started condiucting an operation directed at our President, we might very well remove him without the President directly signing off.

But given, Putin's background, I'd bet he was in the loop.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

Outlaw states will engage in rash actions no matter what. That's why they're freakin' outlaws!

Your arguments rather closely resemble the arguments used by gun control groups.

[gondramB]

>>Outlaw states will engage in rash actions no matter what. That's why they're freakin' outlaws!

Your arguments rather closely resemble the arguments used by gun control groups.<<

The logic of the argument is similar but the basis is different.

I acknowledge and respect the right of American citizens to keep and bear arms while I do not respect or acknowledge the right of outlaw nations embargoed by both the U.S. and the U.N. to receive high tech weapons.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

"The logic of the argument is similar but the basis is different."

In that case, the argument has absolutely zero logic, making the basis irrelevant.

"I acknowledge and respect the right of American citizens to keep and bear arms while I do not respect or acknowledge the right of outlaw nations embargoed by both the U.S. and the U.N. to receive high tech weapons."

Iran is not embargoed by the UN, merely by the US. And they will be outlaws, TorM1s or no TorM1s.

[gondramB]

Well it sounds like you're gonna support missiles for Iran no matter what, so I will just concede.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

No, I'm just not going to get my panties wadded up and accuse their suppliers of waging war against the United States.

[M. Espinola]

"No, I'm just not going to get my panties wadded up and accuse their suppliers of waging war against the United States."

Well, that's bloody evident after reading your previous comments relating to Putin & jihadist exporting Iran.

With Putin's régime arming to the gills terrorist inciting rouge states in the expanded Axis of Evil how can you say Putin is not plotting a future war with the United States when every tyrant is weapons are outfitting are already at war with US?.

He is using these ever willing terrorist proxies to keep America's military spread out all over, combating jihadist instigated war of terror s, plus on guard for communist invasion from North Korea , as Iran& Syria have provoked in Iraq coupled with numerous other hot spots, as in guarding against full scale communist invasion from North Korea, while on America's home-front the nation remains deeply divided with the radical leftist media beating the drums of division, falling into the enemies goals. Perfect for Putin's future 'plans' plus all his jihadic & communist cohorts he sells Russian made weapons systems.

Meanwhile Putin's has begun a duplication of the Night of The Long Knives in the Russian 'Motherland' as well as abroad by liquidating vocal critics of his past diabolical involvements, while warning the West this KGB thug is a second Stalin preparing for a winnable nuclear war.

[M. Espinola]

Is the Kremlin paying willing propagandists from the Putin Promoters Club regular overtime, or have you staunch comrades graduated to double time and a half on weekends, plus 'benefits'?

Cat's put of the bag, spill it, we know anyway, just wondering which rate of overtime Moscow is willing to cough up these days.

Vlad might send you a copy of his favourite disc, comrade.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

You were right.

I give credit where credit is due. I read some articles today that he converted on his deathbed (this info was provided by his father, although that does lead to a discrepancy between the "2 months ago" and "converted on deathbed").

[GarySpFc]

In several other places it states he converted two months ago. The Russophobes denied any conversion took place.