Russian flu.
...Next? ...
Posted on 11/29/2006 8:15:38 PM PST by jdm
FORMER Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko feared he had been poisoned by Italian academic Mario Scaramella, it was revealed yesterday.
Pal Yuri Felshtinsky, who wrote a book with Litvinenko, 43, says the stricken ex-KGB man named the Italian in a deathbed phone call.
He told Felshtinsky, 50, that Scaramella seemed nervous and ate nothing when they met in a London sushi restaurant on November 1, after which the Russian fell ill.
Police believe a tiny grain of radioactive Polonium-210 was dropped into Litvinenko’s food. Scaramella, who headed an organisation which tracked dumped nuclear waste, has DENIED being responsible for the ex-spy’s agonising demise.
Yesterday he was being quizzed by police at a safe house in the Home Counties.
Felshtinsky, a Russian historian who moved to the US in 1978, penned the book Blowing Up Russia with Litvinenko — who died in a London hospital last week. He believes top-ranking Russian secret service officers ordered the “hit” to send out a warning to defectors — especially billionaire Boris Berezovsky, a critic of President Vladimir Putin.
Felshtinsky said: “When I talked to Alexander around 12 November about who poisoned him, we were talking only about the Italian guy Mario. He was sure at this time that it was Mario. He was telling me that he was in a scheme.”
Felshtinsky added: “There is no doubt this was done by the Russian government or FSB (Russia’s secret service). I think it was a warning. It is also a demonstration that Russia doesn’t care how the world reacts to what it is doing.”
Blowing Up Russia is banned in its authors’ homeland for “revealing state secrets”. It alleged Putin and secret service chief Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev were behind blasts at apartment blocks in their country blamed on Chechen terrorists. The book says they were intended to start a war in Chechnya and win votes for Putin.
Litvinenko met Scaramella in Piccadilly Circus. They then walked to the Itsu sushi bar, where Scaramella gave Litvinenko a list of people he said had been earmarked for assassination by a squad of ex-KGB veterans. Litvinenko is believed to have died later from a heart attack brought on by the nuclear poison.
He wrote a last deathbed testament accusing Putin of ordering his death. High levels of radiation were later found at the sushi bar — and a radiation trail blazed in Litvinenko’s wake at locations he visited afterwards.
A further five people were admitted to a clinic yesterday over fears they received radiation poisoning — taking the total to eight.
Most are understood to have been in the sushi bar when married dad Litvinenko, who lived in North London, visited. Prof Scaramella, 38, flew to Britain at Scotland Yard’s request. Police stressed he was being treated as a witness and was NOT under arrest.
The Italian said: “I’ve always said I am willing to help the police and that is why I’m here. I’ll tell them all that happened. Alexander was my friend.”
Alex Goldfarb, a business associate of 60-year-old Boris Berezovsky, said the tycoon was shocked after radiation poison was found in his offices.
Mr Berezovsky said of Litvinenko: “I credit him with saving my life. He remained a close friend ever since.”
Or his killer flew on some or all of those planes.
Sounds like a Bond villain.
I'm with you. The straight dope about this wil a looooong time in coming to the fore.
Sheesh, who's got a bigger body count list -- Putin or the Clintons?
My thought exactly. The Russians are ogres, and will always be ogres. Prove me wrong.
Russian flu.
...Next? ...
Unless the poisoning was done to send a message, a crystal clear message. This is a sensational and intriguing manner of murder, guaranteed to grab headlines for weeks. I cant imagine that this is an accident, poisoning can be done with much more ordinary materials this here. The poisoning was intended to create headlines. So who would want to do that? Perhaps a serial killer is motivated by that, but given that this guy is a former Russian spy and the poison is extremely unconventional, that's pretty unlikely. Two scenarios are possible then. Either it is what it appears to be, a killing by the Kremlin meant to send a message not to challenge Putin. OR it is a killing meant to appear like that by those who wish to create a perception that the Kremlin is evil and muderous (probably by enemies of Putin). I dont know which it is, but those are the only two cases which make sense, and both are compatible with this manner of killing.
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