Alexander Litvinenko: Life is Stranger than Fiction
A lot of you may remember a major story about the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former agent for the FSB (formerly KGB) and an extremely harsh critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. What made the Litvinenko case particularly striking was the fact that the apparent cause of his death was poisoning by Polonium-210, an extremely rare radioactive element:
Before After
His accusations against the current Kremlin regime ranged from ties to organized crime to claims of FSB involvement in the apartment bombings which claimed the lives of over 300 Russian citizens in 1999 (these were blamed on Chechen terrorists and the resultant public fury paved the way to the second Chechen war and to Putin’s landslide victory in the 2000 presidential elections on the basis of his promise to wipe out Chechen terrorists in the "shit house") to FSB involvement in the hostage crisis in a sold-out theater in Moscow (House of Culture of the State Ball-Bearing Plant Number 1) and even an accusation that Putin is a pedophile. The final straw for Litvinenko appears to have come in 1997, when he received an order to kill Boris Berezovsky, an extremely controversial Russian oligarch who is currently living “in exile” in London. He fled from Russia, ultimately winding up in London, where among other things, he worked for Berezovsky.
His death initially caused a major stir in the media, appearing to contain all the elements of a spy novel. In addition to the extremely mysterious cause of his death, particularly striking elements of the case were his Last Testament which he apparently wrote on November 21, 2006 (two days before his death), and an article written by him entitled "Why I believe Putin wanted me dead", which appeared in The Mail on Sunday on November 25. Another fascinating aspect of the story was Litvinenko’s apparent conversion to Islam during his sickness. Obviously, the consensus in the West was that the Russian government was involved in his murder, an accusation which Putin and company have strenuously denied. Those interested in further background on this incredible story can take a look at this handy list of the key figures in Alexander Litvinenko's death as well as the Wikipedia entry for Litvinenko.
Since the week immediately following the case, the media coverage in the United States has died down considerably, though there has been continued strong coverage in the UK media. In Russia, the case has basically been ignored by the media and the government after initial coverage which blamed his murder on the CIA.
So what actually happened to Alexander Litvinenko? One conspiracy theory on the case was recently put forth by the current leader of Chechnya, who attributed Litvinenko’s murder, as well as that of dissident reporter Anna Politkovskaya, to Boris Berezovsky. The British investigation of his murder has apparently yielded a more comprehensive account of the events and the murder now appears to be the work of Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB and FSB agent and current Russian businessman, who met with Litvinenko shortly before his death and left a trail of Polonium-210 behind him while in England. The British are expected to ask the Russian government for the extradition of Lugovoi, which is not likely to be granted unless the British agree to the extradite Berezovsky to Russia in return. The British claims that the Russians are not cooperating with the investigation have already caused a major diplomatic rift between the two countries. In fact, the poor British ambassador to seems to have been getting hounded by members of the Kremlin-backed youth group, Nashi, around Christmas time. Poor guy; he is like the anti-Santa Claus. Is it just me, or is the visual of a government having an army of teenagers at its disposal for harassing political enemies both incredibly disturbing and hilarious at the same time? Can you imagine Bush and company unleashing an army of kids from Jesus camps on the Syrian Ambassador or even on Keith Olbermann?
To give the