Russians 'set up hit squad to kill London dissidents' - LIVE THREAD

The Evening Standard ^ | December 1, 2006 | Staff

[MadIvan]

A secret assassination squad was set up to poison former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, it was claimed today.

The allegations are contained in two letters smuggled out of a Russian jail and passed to a close friend of Mr Litvinenko.

The letters were apparently written in jail by Mikhail Trepashkin, a former Russian intelligence officer. In one, Mr Litvinenko is warned that both he and his family are at risk. Mr Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb said scans of the letters came into his possession yesterday and he passed them to Scotland Yard.

In 2004 Mr Trepashkin, who worked for the KGB's successor the FSB until 1997, was accused of being a British spy and passing secret information to Mr Litvinenko and his close friend tycoon Boris Berezovsky, both exiled in London. He is currently serving a four-year sentence.

In a message to Mr Litvinenko on 20 November, Mr Trepashkin recalls a conversation in August 2002 in which he warned Mr Litvinenko - already living in London - that he and his family were at risk from the FSB.

Mr Trepashkin tells his friend that he had met an FSB contact in Russia who told him that a "very serious group" had been set up, which "will knock out all those associated with Berezovsky and Litvinenko".

"My understanding then was that they were planning to take out your relatives quietly, without much fuss," he wrote.

Mr Goldfarb said the other letter, addressed to him and written on 25 November this year, detailed an offer to be a witness in the British investigation into Mr Litvinenko's death.

Following fresh poisoning claims involving former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar, the Foreign Office said today that it was not linking the two cases.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said today: "We have noted the reports of Yegor Gaidar's illness and wish him a speedy recovery. We know of no information which suggests any connection with the Litvinenko case and will continue to follow any developments closely."

Among those caught up in the radiation scare was Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell who, along with London 2012 Olympics organising committee chairman Lord Coe, flew to Barcelona last month on a BA jet checked for contamination.

"I'm feeling absolutely tiptop," she said today. "This was a scare that never was."

[justa-hairyape]

Seriously doubt that a martyr is going to risk exposing his relatives and close friends to radiation poisoning. No tinfoil hat required.

[Yaelle]

The should be a big wakeup call to everyone in the west who has been rambling about how we won the Cold War for the past decade. Nobody told the Russians that they lost, or that they are no longer a major world power.

BINGO. Hell hath no fury like a superpower scorned.

[Yaelle]

You really think Litvinenko offed himself with slow-acting POISON? To me that gets sliced in two by Occam's Gillette.