Spies, assassinations, conspiracies

An extremely intriguing storyline has been running in the news the past few two weeks regarding the poisoning and death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. It has story lines that are similar to a spy novel or movie, involving conspiracies, assassinations, and cover-ups, however, it is actually real. Litvinenko died on November 23, 2006 after being poisoned with polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope. The story has many sideplots and intrigue, however, I will try to stick with main points.

Litvinenko had been investigating the assasination of Russian journalist and human right's activist Anna Politkovskaya. Anna Politkovskaya was found shot dead on October 7, 2006 in the elevator of her apartment in Moscow. Police said a Makarov pistol and four shell casings were found beside her body. She was shot four times, once in the head. Politkovskaya was well known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and the Putin administration.

Litvinenko first fell ill late on November 1, the same day he met with Mario Scaramella at a sushi bar in London. Mr. Scaramella reportedly showed Litvinenko e-mails from a mutual intelligence acquaintance containing a list of individuals whose lives were said to be in danger from criminals based in St. Petersburg. The e-mails claimed that the same criminals killed Anna Politkovskaya. Scaramella and Litvinenko's names were reportedly also on that list. Scaramella has also tested positive for traces of polonium-210, but is not suffering from physical symptoms.

Traces of radiation have also been found in various locations in London that Litvinenko visited that day, including the offices of Boris Berezovsky. Traces of radiation were also found in several planes that flew between London and Moscow.

In 1998, Litvinenko publicly accused his superiors at Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB, the successor to the KGB) of ordering him to kill the tycoon Boris Berezovsky and Litvinenko spent nine months in jail from 1999 on charges of abuse of office. He was later acquitted and in 2000 sought asylum in Britain.

Boris Berezovsky is known as Russia's first billionaire, and recently changed his name to Platon Elenin. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Berezovsky used his connections with Boris Yeltsin to acquire stakes in state companies including an automobile company, state airline Aeroflot, and several oil properties paying a fraction of the companies' actual values. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not appreciate Berezovsky's opinions on Chechnya or his political clout, and opened investigations into Berezovsky's business activities. Berezovsky fled to London, where he was granted political asylum. He has been charged with fraud and political corruption, but the Russian government has been unable to extradite him.

Coincidentally, Berezovsky has gone into business with Neil Bush, the younger brother of President George W. Bush. Berezovsky has been an investor in Bush's Ignite! Learning, an educational software corporation, since at least 2003. This is rumored to have caused strains in the relationship between President Bush and President Putin.

Berezovsky is believed to have had connections with the Chechen mafia, which were powerful in Moscow iu the 90's. He survived several assassination attempts, including a 1994 car bomb attack. Also, he was almost killed a few years later in a rally standpoint shootoff.

Litvenko was also warned according to letters written in jail by Mikhail Trepashkin, a former Russian intelligence officer, about a government-sponsored death squad that intended to kill him and other Kremlin opponents. "Back in 2002, I warned Alexander Litvinenko that they set up a special team to kill him," Trepashkin wrote in a letter dated Nov. 23 — the day of Litvinenko's death.

Trepashkin was arrested in October 2003 and convicted on charges of divulging state secrets while investigating allegations of FSB involvement in a series of deadly apartment bombings that killed about 300 people in Moscow and two other cities in 1999. The government blamed the explosions on Chechnya-based rebels, but Litvinenko and other Kremlin critics alleged they were staged by authorities as a pretext for launching the current Chechen war.

The FSB alleged that Trepashkin had been recruited by British agents to collect compromising materials on the explosions with the aim of discrediting the Russian security agency.

Lastly, former Premier Yegor Gaidar, another Kremlin critic, fell severely ill in Ireland on November 24, and was taken back to Moscow to be treated for what doctors said they believed was poisoning. He is now reported to be recovering. Several other journalists and critics of the Kremlin have also been poisoned or shot in recent years.


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