[Lurker]

Police have decided not to publish pictures of this man,

Why not?

L

[Calpernia]

Oleg Gordievsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Gordievsky

[hellbender]

I have been shocked that people right here on FR have posted opinions that Putin would not have ordered this hit, that Russian intelligence could just have used a bullet, that the murdered exile was involved in smuggling radioactive material, etc. I suspected from the beginning that such stories were typical KGB-style disinformation designed to exculpate Putin's mobster regime. Fortunately, the Brits do not seem to have been fooled by that nonsense. This was an old-style KGB murder all the way.

[stm]

Natasha, vee must get moose and squirrel!!!

[Liberty Valance]

He is described as being tall and powerfully built, in his early thirties with short, cropped black hair and distinctive Central Asian features.

[PGalt]

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

[cricket]

He is described as being tall and powerfully built, in his early thirties with short, cropped black hair and distinctive Central Asian features.

I suspect he is NONE OF THE ABOVE. . .at least, any longer. . .

[PaRepub07]

Picture this:
According to a UPI press report, this is what Oleg Gordievsky believes.
"His belief is that the water from the kettle was only lukewarm and that the polonium-210 was added, which heated the drink through radiation so he had a hot cup of tea. The poison would have showed up in a cold drink,"
Right (sarcasm) I can just envision former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko taking and drinking a bubbling cup of tea from a total stranger.
Link to UPI report: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20070120-082114-2587r

[Donna Lee Nardo]

"According to police sources, until now it has not been revealed that Litvinenko visited a fourth-floor room at the Millennium Hotel to discuss a business deal.

He had gone to the room with Kovtun and another former Russian agent, Andrei Lugovoy.

The three men were joined in the room later by the mystery figure who was introduced as 'Vladislav'.

Gordievsky told The Times yesterday how 'Vladislav' was described as someone who could help Litvinenko win a lucrative contract with a Moscow-based private security company.

'Sasha (his name for Litvinenko) remembered the man making him a cup of tea.'

'His belief is that the water from the kettle was only lukewarm and that the polonium-210 was added, which heated the drink through radiation so he had a hot cup of tea. The poison would have showed up in a cold drink,' he added.

The hotel room where Litvinenko thought he was poisoned remains sealed off. This room reportedly showed the heaviest concentration of polonium-210 found at a dozen locations across London."

Amazing. Another classic Russian who-done-it. I infer that the Kremlin continues to believe that Litvinenko himself was involved in a plot to poison Nevzlin and other Yukos officials. Although the canvas is certainly not yet dry as concerns this entire affair, every detail is captivating.

[LibKill]

The one thing I don't get is, why polonium? It's expensive and can be traced.

Thallium works just as well, is just as incurably fatal, slow, painful and very few survive a stiff dose. Plus thallium poisons are much harder to trace than polonium isotopes.

[Gritty]

[TET1968]

The Jackel is busted, his real name is Ivan Sonofavich.

[AdmSmith]

Here is more about Igor Vlasov, 46:

Litvinenko was murdered by a killer with three false passports


AIA reported exactly a month ago that Scotland Yard investigators had some information about the possible killer of the Russian ex-security service officer Alexander Litvinenko, according to former agent of KGB in Britain Oleg Gordievsky. He told his version to Radio Liberty this week again.

Gordievsky said that, already in the first days of the probe, Scotland Yard detected some illegal visitor, who arrived in London from Hamburg under the forged documents November 1. The man, a professional killer, arrived in Heathrow under the forged EU passport to pass unnoticed. Then the killer changed the passport for another passport of the EU. He left the same night after Litvinenko's poisoning (or perhaps, early next day), using the third passport, Gordievsky said, specifying the detectives have a photo of the possible killer taken by the airport's surveillance cameras. His first passport was photographed as well.

Russian online paper Gazeta.ru wrote earlier that this man was mentioned in the papers, showed to Litvinenko by his Italian contact Mario Scaramella on November 1. A former spetsnaz member of the military counterintelligence, GRU, named Igor, 46, was mentioned in the dossier, allegedly delivered from Russia. His surname is not disclosed in interests of investigation.

Last month, AIA wrote, referring to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, that an eventual name of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service expert in covert operations might be Igor Vlasov. The British media outlets have reported that he is easy limps (after a car crash), perfectly knows English and Portuguese, and also the judo, has some passports and carries out functions of a professional killer. Later, owing to leakages, it became known that the suspect stopped in the beginning of November in one of the London hotels. Some editions believe that this person is involved also in the murder of the investigative journalist of the Russian Novaya gazeta, Anna Politkovskaya. It is not excluded that the man Gordievsky spoke about, and a certain Igor is one and the same person.
Gordievsky's conclusions partly coincide with the version of Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, who met with Litvinenko on the day he fell fatally ill, they had put forward in their justification.

As it was found out later, radiation had appeared in places Kovtun visited in Hamburg, Germany. Kovtun and Lugovoy explained the polonium trace with the alleged fact that the real murderer of Litvinenko wished to bring them under suspicion and followed them. According to Gordievsky, the Scotland Yard inspectors have believed the both witnesses, Gazeta.ru says.

Meanwhile, Gibson Square Books, a British publishing house, is reissuing Litvinenko's Blowing Up Russia, a controversial book and the first of a slew of planned editions that will carry the dead man's anti-Kremlin allegations around the world, as The Associated Press puts it.

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1199

[anymouse]

FR Thead: ABC News Exclusive: Murder in a Teapot British officials say police have cracked the murder-by-poison case of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, including the discovery of a "hot" teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for Polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing.