Why a spy was killed (The Mogilevich-Litvinenko Link)

Guardian ^ | January 26, 2008 | Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy

[Ivan the Terrible]

...Litvinenko "was giving Scaramella lots of information about Russian and criminal infiltrations in Italy, but most of it was very difficult to verify and crosscheck. It was a little bit out on a limb." In the old days, Litvinenko had been familiar with criminal clans in Russia, now he was making risky approaches to the Italian mafia. Scaramella believed if they could get inside this network, they would be able to leverage much more damaging intelligence about Italian politicians.

They spread their net wider. The Litvinenko dossier lists a dizzying roll call of names investigated by the pair, among them Semion Mogilevich, the darkest figure in Russian organised crime - a notorious Ukrainian whose network extended from Kiev to Naples. Mogilevich, a striking man at barely 5ft 6in and more than 20 stone, has a portfolio that includes private banks, financing the sale of enriched uranium and laundering his money through companies listed on the New York stock exchange. He was already on the FBI's wanted list but, according to Litvinenko's sources, had extensive links to Putin's government.

Taking on Mogilevich, who runs a private army of brutal killers, was a huge risk for a civilian outfit such as the Mitrokhin Commission, and Litvinenko soon picked up word that he was enraging the Ukrainian's siloviki friends in Moscow. In autumn 2005, he made a tape recording in London, expressing his concern: "I gave a lot of information about Mogilevich to Scaramella. Now I know Russian special services are very afraid that this commission will uncover information about its agents in Italy. The Russian embassy asked for my brother to be extradited so he could be prosecuted back in Russia. It is blackmail against me to stop me working with Scaramella."

[Cheburashka]

Why the bizarre Polonium-210 when a bullet would suffice?

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Interesting question. Possible answer: Because the assassin(s) thought the Polonium-210’s presence in his body would be undetectable and therefore untraceable. Therefore no proof he was even murdered.

On the other hand if the assassin(s) knew it was traceable it would be like shooting a flare gun at midnight.

So it depends - did the assassin(s) know Polonium-210 poisoning was traceable? When they catch them they can ask them.

A very expensive poison - unless you stole it somehow. So does that mean a government (probably Russian) involvement or not?

Russia exports Polonium-210 for commercial uses. If someone knows where this batch was made, as far as I know they haven't leaked it to the press.

One thing that does seem to indicate Russian involvement - they seem very uninterested in cooperating with the investigation. You'd think the possibility of Polonium-210 winding up in his own tea would concern Putin.