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Who Killed Litvinenko?
Was former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko really murdered? The Russian died in London in 2006 apparently from poisoning with the radioactive isotope polonium-210. On his deathbed, Litvinenko told media that the order for his assassination had come from the Kremlin. The British government too blamed Moscow for what amounted to an act of nuclear terrorism on British soil.
The claims drew angry condemnation from Russia: Indeed, one of the men the British want to speak to about the death, fellow former KGB spook Andrei Lugovoi, has become something of a hero in Vladimir Putin's Russia. He was recently elected to political office.
Britain has called for his extradition, but Russia's constitution forbids extradition of citizens for crimes in foreign states. In any case, the Russian elite has made its feelings clear on the matter of Lugovoi's innocence or otherwise, claiming Britain's case against him is filled with "blank spaces and contradictions."
To say the circumstances of Litvinenko's death are mysterious is an understatement. The man was a fierce critic of the Kremin and Vladimir Putin. He claimed the KGB and its successors were involved in terrorism on an epic scale, even orchestrating attacks on Russian soil including the 2002 Moscow theatre siege. He also said that the terrorists who carried out the London bombings of 2005 were trained by FSB forces, and that al-Qaeda's top ranks are populated by KGB-FSB collaborators and agents.
Litvinenko's claims ran from the highly improbable - few imagine any Kremlin involvement in the the July "7/7" attacks on London - to the likely: He said that secret service agents were involved in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a suspicion shared by many in Europe's press freedom networks.
And then there are the offensively personal, such as his unsubstantiated claim that Putin is a paedophile, and the downright intriguing: That former EU Commission President and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi was the KGB's top man in the west.
Rumours surrounded Litvinenko too. He converted to Islam shortly before his death; there were rumours he was working for British intelligence agency MI6. The various dissidents, oligarchs and Russian chieftans living in London exist in a murky milieu impenetrable to all but the most dedicated Kremlinologists.
Shortly after Litvinenko's death, counter-theories began circulating on the internet. Litvinenko had been working in Chechnya, and had shady ties to militias there; he might have been poisoned accidentally, he might have poisoned himself while trying to smuggle polonium into Britain (from where? for whom?).
Straight from the Kremlin's playbook? Who knows. Here's a thoroughgoing look at the latest theories by not-particularly-Putinsceptic Independent columnist Mary Dejevsky, which pours scorn on the British line on Litvinenko's demise.
