Leaves us with the question of the polonium? :cool:
Rusian maffia?


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/wo...ed=1&th&emc=th

The Use of Polonium to kill Litvinenko is an unsual choice, as ther are other poisons around that would have done the job more effectivley. Putin is been touted as the majour culprit, due to the dislike of him by Litvinenko and others.
The Russians have shown great use of posions to get rid of people who have crossed them in the past. Not all of the uses of posion have been cleared by Moscow, Georgi Markov was killed by the Bulgarian Secret Police, despite Moscow not wanting it to go ahead.
Let the investigation find out who did it, there maybe someone else who acted on the own will, who also had a wish to see him dead.

Can anyone point me towards examples of this HYSTERIA OF THE WESTERN MEDIA I'm hearing so much about? And possibly something from BBC/CNN-type sources. Obviously when a man says he has been poisoned by order of Vladimir Putin the gutter press will react in a ridiculous fashion; they know it, we know it. But the mainstream media are usually different.


this kind of stuff....

Sure Tchcoky.

Whoever is responsible, his death underlines that Russian-style assassinations have been imported into Britain along with London’s sizeable Russian exile community.

a week ago, few westerners or Russians had heard of Alexander Litvinenko. Yet his gaunt and sallow face, splashed across newspapers this week, threatens to become a defining image of Vladimir Putin's Russia. His deathbed charge that the Russian president was responsible for his demise may dog Mr Putin for the rest of his presidency and beyond.Strangely, however, Mr Litvinenko was neither the Kremlin's most damaging critic nor Russia's most high-profile defector. And despite the alarming nature of the former KGB officer's death - by poisoning with radioactive polonium-210 - intelligence experts say there is no concrete evidence Russian agents were involved, let alone Kremlin-sanctioned.



Russian secret services may finally have decided to dispense justice to someone they saw as a traitor, with or without higher authority. Former colleagues, no longer in the services, could have decided to do the same.
But there are other scenarios. Mr Litvinenko's support for Chechen rebel causes and friendship with Akhmed Zakayev, the exile who sits in Chechnya's rebel "government", made him an enemy of the separatist republic's current pro-Moscow leadership. Forces connected to Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen prime minister, were also seen as possible suspects in Ms Politkovskaya's shooting.


Mr Litvinenko could also have fallen foul of the tangled politics of London's expatriate Russian community. He became part of a loose alliance of exiled oligarchs - including the now London-based Mr Berezovsky, Chechens, Soviet-era and more recent defectors - united by loathing for Mr Putin's government. His poisoning certainly provided a propaganda boost - skilfully manipulated by Mr Berezovsky's associates and public relations advisers - for the campaign the one-time oligarch is waging for Mr Putin's political overthrow.



By Neil Buckley, Arkady Ostrovsky and Stephen Fidler
Published: November 25 2006 02:00 FT

Mr Putin expressed doubts as to the authenticity of Litvinenko's declaration. He said he was "unclear" why, if the statement had been written while Litvinenko was alive, it had not been reported at that time. "Mr Litvinenko is not Lazarus," he said.
FT again.


7 OCTOBER
Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of the Russian government and in particular the war in Chechnya, is shot dead in Moscow. Mr Litvinenko begins to investigate amid claims she was killed because of her work.

1 NOVEMBER
Mr Litvinenko meets two Russian men at a London hotel - one a former KGB officer.
He also meets academic Mario Scaramella at a sushi bar where he is said to have received documents about the journalist's death.
Several hours after his meetings, Mr Litvinenko complains of feeling sick and is admitted to Barnet General Hospital, north London.
saturday, 25 November 2006, 23:34 GMT BBC


Look how this is put together. There are more examples, like the Guradian, Times, etc, but I have really little time to plought through 5 days old electronic newspapers. But the whole speculative tone, the implications, the presentation of the info (Politkovskaya death in the same timeline ) and so on, is very much sensationalist journalism. I mean I have no illusions about FT (i read it at work every day anyway) but the way it has been picked up on the news is rediculous.

Alas, BBC published this piece which is quite interesting and deals with opinions on the story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6183704.stm

Another FT Piece.

Berezovsky link draws Lord Bell into action

By Jimmy Burns
Published: November 25 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 25 2006 02:00

The mystery surrounding the death of Alexander Litvinenko has stirred claims and counter-claims about who might be responsible, drawing in one of Britain's most successful and experienced public relations experts on behalf of some of the key players linked to the controversy.
Lord Bell has been representing Boris Berezovsky for four years, and fielding media inquiries on his behalf because of his friendship with Mr Litvinenko. The PR executive also confirmed yesterday that since the poisoning saga broke last week, his involvement had grown to offering advice to others - relatives of Mr Litvinenko and Alex Goldfarb, the former Russian spy's spokesman during his dying days in a London hospital.
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In addition to offering his Russian clients advice on how to handle the aggressive British media, Lord Bell has also helped in distributing the harrowing photograph showing Mr Litvinenko with no hair and physically wasted in his final hours.
Last night Lord Bell, who played a critical role in promoting Margaret Thatcher towards Downing Street in 1979, was co-operative in answering media inquiries as the Litvinenko case took a new twist with suggestions of a conspiracy involving the use of radioactive material responsible for his death.
He denied categorically the thinly veiled accusations emanating from the Kremlin against Mr Berezovsky, alleging a plot to embarrass President Vladimir Putin.
"It was inevitable that the Kremlin should try and blame Boris for this, they are always trying to blame him for something. But the idea that Boris did this to embarrass Putin is potty," Lord Bell said, insisting that anyone who knew his client knew he would be incapable of killing anyone.

Ah poor Boris.

Very interesting stuff 941.

There are so many Russian expats in London, more than I think many UK citizens are aware of. Also a lot of unsavoury types.

Now the former Prime Minister has been poisoned.

After visiting my university, no less

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6159343.stm

Why is it that so many 'undesirables' (only word I could think of, not correct for all) in Britain? Since Churchill you've had the likes of Philby, escaped to the USSR, Rushdi, and what should have been a wake-up call to the danger Islam poses, cameras on every street corner, your right to defend yourself gone, STEED complaining about the PC madness. What is going on in GB?

PC madness is hand in glove with Islam. :nope:

Back to the story, this really is becoming a very strange situation indeed.

Is it fear of Islam or lack of national feelings which is driving the PC issue? The UK used to be a proud nation (the sun never sets over the British Empire), and when did empire become a bad thing.

Erm, what?

Where's Kapitan? :rotfl::rotfl::ping::ping:

UK 'behind Litvinenko poisoning'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6706921.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6710155.stm

This was discussed numerous times. Typically buried in threads though.

-S