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Revision as of 06:17, 18 January 2008 editHodja Nasreddin (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Pending changes reviewers31,217 edits Please do not make changes agains consensus (see discussion of "conspiracy theory" at talk page). All this information has been already included in the article. Let's not repeat the same.← Previous edit Revision as of 06:19, 18 January 2008 edit undoMiyokan (talk | contribs)5,650 edits rv deletion of sourced and pertinent informationNext edit →
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In 1991, he was promoted to the Central Staff, and specialised in ] and infiltration of ]. Six years later, he was promoted to senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section of the ]. In November 1998, Litvinenko publicly accused his superiors of ordering the assassination of Russian billionaire ]. He was arrested by Russian authorities and then released; he later fled to the ], where he was granted ] and citizenship. In 1991, he was promoted to the Central Staff, and specialised in ] and infiltration of ]. Six years later, he was promoted to senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section of the ]. In November 1998, Litvinenko publicly accused his superiors of ordering the assassination of Russian billionaire ]. He was arrested by Russian authorities and then released; he later fled to the ], where he was granted ] and citizenship.


Litvinenko published two books, "'']''" and "'']''" in which he described ]'s rise to power as a ] organised by the FSB. He stated a key element of FSB's strategy was to frighten Russians by ] in Moscow and other Russian cities. He alleged the bombings were organised by FSB and blamed on Chechen terrorists to legitimise reprisals using military force in ]. In his articles and public presentations he also stated that Russian secret services have arranged ] through their Chechen ], that they organized ], and that terrorist ] was under their control when he visited Russia in 1997. He had warned ] that she may be killed in Russia on the order from Putin, and that FSB agents are prepared to assassinate him, ] and ]. He even called Putin "] and accused him of pedophilia. Litvinenko published two books, "'']''" and "'']''" in which he described ]'s rise to power as a ] organised by the FSB. He stated a key element of FSB's strategy was to frighten Russians by ] in Moscow and other Russian cities. This theory has been described as a "conspiracy theory" and the official investigation found Chechyan militants to be responsible.<ref>{{citenews|title=From Russia with secrets|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,18389-1610952,00.html|publisher=]|accessdate=2007-12-17|date=], ]}}</ref>. He alleged the bombings were organised by FSB and blamed on Chechen terrorists to legitimise reprisals using military force in ]. In his articles and public presentations he also stated that Russian secret services have arranged ] through their Chechen ], that they organized ], and that terrorist ] was under their control when he visited Russia in 1997. He had warned ] that she may be killed in Russia on the order from Putin, and that FSB agents are prepared to assassinate him, ] and ]. Litvinenko made unsubstantiated claims that Putin was a pedophile and called him "].


On ] ], Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised. He died three weeks later, becoming a rare victim of lethal ] ] under highly suspicious circumstances. The fact that Litvinenko's revelations about alleged FSB misdeeds were followed two years later by his poisoning led to public accusations that the Russian government was behind his death, resulting in worldwide media coverage. A British police investigation resulted in several suspects for the murder, but in May 2007, the British ], ], announced that his government would seek to ] ], the chief suspect of the case, from ].<ref>{{citenews|title=British Prosecutors to Press Murder Charges in Litvinenko Case|url=http://voanews.com/english/2007-05-22-voa13.cfm|publisher=]|accessdate=2007-05-22|date=], ]}}</ref> On ] ], the British ] officially submitted a request to the ] for the extradition of Lugovoi to face criminal charges in the UK.<ref>{{cite web|title=UK requests Lugovoi extradition|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6698545.stm|publisher=]|accessdate=2007-05-28|date=], ]}}</ref> On ] ], Russia officially declined to extradite Lugovoi, since extradition of citizens is not allowed under the Russian constitution <ref>http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070829/75649246.html</ref>. President ] has "dismissed as "foolishness" a demand by British prosecutors" . On ] ], Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised. He died three weeks later, becoming a rare victim of lethal ] ] under highly suspicious circumstances. The fact that Litvinenko's revelations about alleged FSB misdeeds were followed two years later by his poisoning led to public accusations that the Russian government was behind his death, resulting in worldwide media coverage. A British police investigation resulted in several suspects for the murder, but in May 2007, the British ], ], announced that his government would seek to ] ], the chief suspect of the case, from ].<ref>{{citenews|title=British Prosecutors to Press Murder Charges in Litvinenko Case|url=http://voanews.com/english/2007-05-22-voa13.cfm|publisher=]|accessdate=2007-05-22|date=], ]}}</ref> On ] ], the British ] officially submitted a request to the ] for the extradition of Lugovoi to face criminal charges in the UK with <ref>{{cite web|title=UK requests Lugovoi extradition|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6698545.stm|publisher=]|accessdate=2007-05-28|date=], ]}}</ref> On ] ], Russia officially declined to extradite Lugovoi, citing that extradition of citizens is not allowed under the Russian constitution. Russia has said that they could take on the case themselves if Britain provided evidence against Lugovoi but Britain has not handed over any evidence. The head of the investigating committee at the General Prosecutor's Office said Russia has not yet received any evidence from Britain on Lugovoi. "We have not received any evidence from London of Lugovoi's guilt, and those documents we have are full of blank spaces and contradictions.<ref>http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070829/75649246.html</ref>


According to medical professionals, "Litvinenko’s murder represents an ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism."<ref> "Ushering in the era of nuclear terrorism", by Patterson, Andrew J. MD, PhD, ''Critical Care Medicine'', v. 35, p.953-954, 2007.</ref><ref>"Beyond the Dirty Bomb: Re-thinking Radiological Terror", by James M. Acton; M. Brooke Rogers; Peter D. Zimmerman, DOI: 10.1080/00396330701564760, ''Survival'', Volume 49, Issue 3 September 2007, pages 151 - 168 </ref><ref>"The Litvinenko File: The Life and Death of a Russian Spy", by Martin Sixsmith, True Crime, 2007 ISBN 0-312-37668-5, page 14. </ref>, although Litvinenko was not the first victim of a radiological attack.<ref name="Bellona"> According to medical professionals, "Litvinenko’s murder represents an ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism."<ref> "Ushering in the era of nuclear terrorism", by Patterson, Andrew J. MD, PhD, ''Critical Care Medicine'', v. 35, p.953-954, 2007.</ref><ref>"Beyond the Dirty Bomb: Re-thinking Radiological Terror", by James M. Acton; M. Brooke Rogers; Peter D. Zimmerman, DOI: 10.1080/00396330701564760, ''Survival'', Volume 49, Issue 3 September 2007, pages 151 - 168 </ref><ref>"The Litvinenko File: The Life and Death of a Russian Spy", by Martin Sixsmith, True Crime, 2007 ISBN 0-312-37668-5, page 14. </ref>, although Litvinenko was not the first victim of a radiological attack.<ref name="Bellona">

Revision as of 06:19, 18 January 2008

Alexander Litvinenko
Александр Литвиненко
Born(1962-08-30)30 August 1962
Voronezh, USSR
Died23 November 2006(2006-11-23) (aged 44)
London, United Kingdom (radiation poisoning)
Occupation(s)KGB security officer and later Russian dissident and writer

Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (Template:Lang-ru) (30 August 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a lieutenant-colonel in the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, and later a Russian dissident and writer. A son of a physician, Litvinenko was schooled in Nalchik, before being drafted into the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a private. After graduating in 1985 from the Kirov Higher Command School, he became a platoon commander in an Internal Troops regiment. Litvinenko became a KGB officer in 1986, and two years later, was moved into the Military Counter Intelligence.

In 1991, he was promoted to the Central Staff, and specialised in counter-terrorism and infiltration of organised crime. Six years later, he was promoted to senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section of the FSB. In November 1998, Litvinenko publicly accused his superiors of ordering the assassination of Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky. He was arrested by Russian authorities and then released; he later fled to the United Kingdom, where he was granted political asylum and citizenship.

Litvinenko published two books, "Blowing up Russia: Terror from within" and "Lubyanka Criminal Group" in which he described Vladimir Putin's rise to power as a coup d'état organised by the FSB. He stated a key element of FSB's strategy was to frighten Russians by bombing apartment buildings in Moscow and other Russian cities. This theory has been described as a "conspiracy theory" and the official investigation found Chechyan militants to be responsible.. He alleged the bombings were organised by FSB and blamed on Chechen terrorists to legitimise reprisals using military force in Chechnya. In his articles and public presentations he also stated that Russian secret services have arranged Moscow theater hostage crisis through their Chechen agent provocateur, that they organized 1999 Armenian parliament shooting, and that terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri was under their control when he visited Russia in 1997. He had warned Anna Politkovskaya that she may be killed in Russia on the order from Putin, and that FSB agents are prepared to assassinate him, Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev. Litvinenko made unsubstantiated claims that Putin was a pedophile and called him "Kremlin's Chikatilo.

On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised. He died three weeks later, becoming a rare victim of lethal polonium-210 radiation poisoning under highly suspicious circumstances. The fact that Litvinenko's revelations about alleged FSB misdeeds were followed two years later by his poisoning led to public accusations that the Russian government was behind his death, resulting in worldwide media coverage. A British police investigation resulted in several suspects for the murder, but in May 2007, the British Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, announced that his government would seek to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the chief suspect of the case, from Russia. On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office officially submitted a request to the Government of Russia for the extradition of Lugovoi to face criminal charges in the UK with On 5 July 2007, Russia officially declined to extradite Lugovoi, citing that extradition of citizens is not allowed under the Russian constitution. Russia has said that they could take on the case themselves if Britain provided evidence against Lugovoi but Britain has not handed over any evidence. The head of the investigating committee at the General Prosecutor's Office said Russia has not yet received any evidence from Britain on Lugovoi. "We have not received any evidence from London of Lugovoi's guilt, and those documents we have are full of blank spaces and contradictions.

According to medical professionals, "Litvinenko’s murder represents an ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism.", although Litvinenko was not the first victim of a radiological attack..

His wife and friend Alexander Goldfarb, said in their book "Death of a Dissident" that the murder of Litvineko by Russian agents was "the most compelling proof" of all his theories:

By doing so he gave credence to all his previous theories, delivering justice for the tenants of the bombed apartment blocks, the Moscow theater-goers, Yushenkov, Shchekochikhin, and Anna Politkovskaya, and the half-exterminated nation of Chechnya, exposing their killers for the whole world to see.


Early life

Alexander Litvinenko was born as the son of physician Walter Litvinenko in the Russian city of Voronezh. He graduated from secondary school in 1980 in Nalchik and was then drafted into the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a Private. After a year of service, he matriculated from the Kirov Higher Command School in Vladikavkaz. After graduation in 1985, Litvinenko became a platoon commander in an Internal Troops regiment that guarded valuables in transit and in 1988 moved to the KGB.

Career in Russian security services

Litvinenko became an agent of the KGB in 1986. In 1988, he was officially transferred to the Third Chief Directorate of the KGB, Military Counter Intelligence. Later that year, after studying for a year at the Novosibirsk Military Counter Intelligence School, he became an operational officer and served in KGB military counterintelligence until 1991.

In 1991, he was promoted to the Central Staff of the MB-FSK-FSB of Russia, specialising in counter-terrorist activities and infiltration of organised crime. He was awarded the title of "MUR veteran" for operations conducted with the Moscow criminal investigation department, the MUR. Litvinenko also saw active military service in many of the so-called "hot spots" of the former USSR and Russia. During the First Chechen War Litvinenko planted several FSB agents in Chechnya. Three of them were "caught to the end, thanks to our man in Nalchik ", according to Akhmed Zakayev, who also claimed that Chechens did not kill Litvinenko during the war mostly because they "did not want to compromise our own man". Litvinenko also served as a foot soldier during the disastrous Russian operation in the Chechen-Dagestani village of Pervomayskoye, where two of his comrades were killed by friendly fire from the rocket artillery.

According to Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy, Litvinenko "was responsible for securing the secrecy of Al-Zawahiri's arrival in Russia, who was trained by FSB instructors in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, in 1996-1997" In 1997, Litvinenko was promoted to the Department for the Analysis of Criminal Organisations of the FSB, with the title of senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section. He was in charge of the protection of Boris Berezovsky, when Berezovsky held a government position. Despite news reports to the contrary, Litvinenko's wife claims that he was never a 'spy' and did not deal with secrets beyond information on operations against organised criminal groups.

Dissidence

On 17 November 1998, during the period that Vladimir Putin was the head of the FSB, five officers of FSB's Directorate for the Analysis of Criminal Organisations appeared at a press conference in the Russian news agency Interfax. The five officers, including the director of the Seventh Department, Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Gusyk, three senior operative officers — Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Litvinenko, Major Andrey Ponkin, and Colonel V. V. Shebalin, Lieutenant Constantin Latyshonok, and Gherman Scheglov accused the director of the Directorate for the Analysis of Criminal Organisations Major-General Evgenii Khokholkov and his deputy, 1st Rank Captain Alexander Kamishnikov of ordering them in November 1997 to assassinate Boris Berezovsky, a Russian businessman who then held the high government post of Secretary of the Security Council and was close to President Boris Yeltsin; Berezovsky later fled to the UK to avoid criminal charges. The officers also claimed they were ordered to kill Mikhail Trepashkin and to kidnap a brother of the businessman Umar Dzhabrailov. Mikhail Trepashikin was present as a victim of the planned assassination.

Several other FSB officers were also present to support the claims. The leader of the Democratic Russia party and proponent of lustration, Galina Starovoitova, was murdered just three days later. However, the official investigation of Starovoitova death did not establish a connection with FSB actions , and six killers were judged and sentenced in 2005 and 2006. Litvinenko was dismissed from the FSB, and then arrested twice on charges which were dropped after he had spent time in Moscow prisons. In 1999, he was arrested on charges of abusing duties during the anti-terrorist campaign in Kostroma (beating citizens during arrest and stealing explosives). He was released a month later after signing a written undertaking not to leave the country.

On 23 May 2007, Sergey Dorenko, formerly a prominent Russian TV host, provided The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal with the full video tape of the interview of Alexander Litvinenko and his fellow employees of FSB recorded by him in April 1998, where the agents confessed that their bosses had ordered them to kill, kidnap or frame up prominent Russian politicians and businesspeople, and thus made it publicly available in full for the first time. Only some excerpts of the video were shown in 1998.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said later in interview to Yelena Tregubova that he personally ordered to fire Litvinenko:

"I fired Litvinenko and disbanded his unit ...because FSB officers should not stage press conferences. This is not their job. And they should not make internal scandals public"

Flight

Litvinenko fled to Turkey from Ukraine on a forged passport using the alias Chris Reid, as his actual passport was confiscated by Russian authorities after criminal charges were filed against him. Litvinenko's wife Marina and five-year-old son Anatoly entered Turkey legally. With the help of Alexander Goldfarb, Litvinenko bought air tickets for the Istanbul-London-Moscow flight, and asked for political asylum at Heathrow airport during the transit stop on November 1 2000. Political asylum was granted on 14 May 2001. In October 2006 he became a naturalised British citizen living in Whitehaven.

Allegations against the Russian Government

Armenian parliament shooting

Alexander Litvinenko accused in various interviews that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General-Staff of the Russian armed forces had organised the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting that killed prime minister of Armenia Vazgen Sargsyan. The Russian embassy in Armenia quickly denied any such involvement issuing the statement “in connection with recent press articles about the alleged involvement of the Russian special services in the tragic events at the Armenian parliament on 27 October 1999.” It also described it as an attempt to harm relations between Armenia and Russia by people against the democratic reforms in Russia.

Russian apartment bombings

Litvinenko alleged that agents from the FSB coordinated the 1999 Russian apartment bombings that killed more than 300 people, whereas Russian officials blamed the explosions on Chechen separatists. This version of events was suggested earlier by David Satter, and Sergei Yushenkov, vice chairman of the Sergei Kovalev commission created by the Russian Parliament to investigate the bombings. However, Litvinenko provided many details in his book. In December 2003 Russian authorities confiscated over 4000 copies of the book en route to Moscow from the publisher in Latvia. In the book Gang from Lubyanka (Лубянская преступная группировка), Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin during his time at FSB was personally involved in organised crime.

Moscow theatre hostage crisis

Litvinenko stated in a June 2003 interview, with the Australian television programme Dateline, that two of the Chechen terrorists involved in the 2002 Moscow theatre siege — whom he named as "Abdul the Bloody" and "Abu Bakar" — were working for the FSB, and that the agency manipulated the rebels into staging the attack. Litvinenko said: "hen they tried to find among the dead terrorists, they weren't there. The FSB got its agents out. So the FSB agents among Chechens organized the whole thing on FSB orders, and those agents were released." The story about FSB connections with the hostage takers was confirmed by Mikhail Trepashkin. "Abu Bakar" (real name probably Khanpasha Terkibaev ) was also described as FSB agent and actual organizer of the terrorist act by Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Khinshtein and other journalists In the beginning of April 2003 Litvinenko gave "the Terkibaev file" to Sergei Yushenkov when he visited London. Yushenkov passed this file to Anna Politkovskaya . A few days later Yushenkov was assassinated. Terkibaev was killed in a car crash in Chechnya.

Support of terrorism worldwide by FSB

In a July 2005 interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Litvinenko alleged that Ayman al-Zawahiri was trained for half of a year by the FSB in Dagestan in 1998. According to FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko, Ayman al-Zawahiri was arrested by Russian authorities in Dagestan in December 1996 and released in May 1997.

With regard to July 2005 bombings in London, Litvinenko said that "all the bloodiest terrorists of the world" were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos "The Jackal" Ramírez, Yassir Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Abdullah Öcalan, Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Hawi who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, and Ezekias Papaioannou from Cyprus. He said that the "terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin".

Accusing Putin of pedophilia

In July 2006 Litvinenko alleged in an article that Putin was a paedophile. He compared Putin to rapist and serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. He wrote that among people who knew about Putin's paedophilia were Anatoly Trofimov and the editor of the Russian newspaper "Top Secret", Artyom Borovik, who died in an aeroplane crash under suspicious circumstances just a week after trying to publish a paper about this subject. Former FSB officer Mikhail Trepashkin now states he warned Litvinenko in 2002 about an FSB unit assigned to assassinate him.

Assassination of Anna Poitkovskaya

File:2686.vid-0008-l-.jpg
Russian task force Vityaz shooting at the image of Alexander Litvinenko

Alexander Litvinenko also accused Vladimir Putin of personally ordering the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and stated that politician Irina Hakamada warned Politkovskaya about threats to her life coming from the Russian government. In that regard, Politkovskaya asked for a piece of advice from Litvinenko. He advised her to escape from Russia immediately. Irina Hakamada denied her involvement in passing any specific threats, and said that she warned Politkovskaya only in general terms more than a year ago, and that Politkovskaya blamed her and Mikhail Kasyanov for becoming the Kremlin's puppets.

Prediction that he and others will be assassinated by Russian agents

When Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov commented on a new law that "Russia has the right to carry out preemptive strikes on militant bases abroad" and explained that these "preemptive strikes may involve anything, except nuclear weapons", Litvinenko said that "You know who they mean when they say 'terrorist bases abroad'? They mean us, Zakayev and Boris, and me".

Allegations concerning Romano Prodi

In April 2006, a British Member of the European Parliament for London, Gerard Batten of United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), stated that Litvinenko had been told that Romano Prodi, the Italian centre-left leader, the current Prime Minister of Italy and former President of the European Commission, had been the KGB's "man in Italy." Batten demanded an inquiry into the allegations. He told the European Parliament that Litvinenko had been informed by FSB deputy chief, General Anatoly Trofimov (who was shot dead in Moscow in 2005) that "Romano Prodi is our man (in Italy)". According to Brussels-based newspaper, the EU Reporter on 3 April 2006, "another high-level source, a former KGB operative in London, has confirmed the story".

However, there is at least one possible contrasting view regarding Litvinenko's reported allegations against Prodi: an interview which, according to La Repubblica, one of the main Italian newspapers, Litvinenko had given to one of its reporters on 3 March 2005. In this interview, published shortly after Litvinenko's death, it was revealed that in March 2004, he had been asked by Mario Scaramella (see below) if the tip that Prodi had passed on about the safe house where Aldo Moro was held after being kidnapped by the Red Brigades had its source in the KGB (and not in a séance, as Prodi had claimed); and if the KGB were behind Moro's kidnapping and the training of the Red Brigades. Litvinenko's reply, according to La Repubblica, was: "I said that I did not know any details about Moro's kidnapping and that I had never heard Prodi mentioned. I just pointed out that, if they wanted to hear my opinion as an expert, it was hardly believable that Prodi had learned that piece of information during a séance and that surely the KGB had followed the kidnapping trying to acquire information. I did not have and I do not have any kind of evidence about Prodi."

On 26 April 2006, Batten repeated his call for a parliamentary inquiry, revealing that "former, senior members of the KGB are willing to testify in such an investigation, under the right conditions". He added, "It is not acceptable that this situation is unresolved, given the importance of Russia's relations with the European Union".

On 22 January 2007, the BBC and ITV News released documents and video footage, from February 2006, in which Litvinenko made the same allegations against Prodi.

Shooting practice controversy

File:Vityaz 48 167.jpeg
Upper house chairman Sergei Mironov visiting the interior ministry training centre Vityaz

In January 2007, Polish newspaper Dziennik revealed that a picture of Litvinenko was used as a shooting target by the Russian special forces unit Vityaz in October 2002. The targets were also photographed by chance when the chairman of the Russian Duma's upper house Sergei Mironov visited the centre and met its head Sergei Lysiuk on 7 November 2006.

Illness and poisoning

Main article: Alexander Litvinenko poisoning
Alexander Litvinenko at University College Hospital

On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and became hospitalised. His illness was later attributed to poisoning with radionuclide polonium-210 after the Health Protection Agency found significant amounts of the rare and highly toxic element in his body. In interviews, Litvinenko stated that he met with two former KGB agents early on the day he fell ill - Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi, though they deny any wrongdoing. The men also introduced Litvinenko to a tall, thin man of central Asian appearance called 'Vladislav Sokolenko' who Lugovoi said was a business partner. Lugovoi is also a former bodyguard of Russian ex-prime minister Yegor Gaidar (who also suffered from a mysterious illness in November 2006). Later, he had lunch at Itsu, a sushi restaurant on Piccadilly in London, with an Italian acquaintance, Mario Scaramella, to whom he made the allegations regarding Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Scaramella, attached to the Mitrokhin Commission investigating KGB penetration of Italian politics, claimed to have information on the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, 48, a journalist who was killed at her Moscow apartment in October 2006.

Marina Litvinenko, widow of the deceased, accused Moscow of orchestrating the murder. Though she believes the order did not come from Putin himself, she does believe it was done at the behest of the authorities, and announced that she will refuse to provide evidence to any Russian investigation out of fear that it would be misused or misrepresented.

On 20 January 2007 British police announced that they have "identified" the man they believe poisoned Alexander Litvinenko. The suspected killer was captured on cameras at Heathrow as he flew into Britain to carry out the murder." The man in question was introduced to Litvinenko as 'Vladislav Sokolenko'. This name was an alias used by the killer as he had entered Britain using a fake EU passport. Because of the sloppy manner in which the polonium-210 was handled and left traces at several locations, it is very possible that Sokolenko is a Hamburg-based Chechen hitman known to the FSB as 'Pабочий' or 'Roustabout', named such because he previously worked on an oil rig and because of his willingness to move wherever work takes him. Roustabout has been compared to a clown in a travelling-circus - clumsy yet brave. He has also been an associate of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

As of 26 January 2007, British officials said police had solved the murder of Litvinenko. They discovered "a 'hot' teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing." In addition, a senior official said investigators had concluded the murder of Litvinenko was "a 'state-sponsored' assassination orchestrated by Russian security services." The police want to charge former Russian spy, Andrei Lugovoi, who met with Litvinenko on 1 November 2006, the day officials believe the lethal dose of polonium-210 was administered.

On the same day, The Guardian reported that the British government was preparing an extradition request asking that Andrei Lugovoi be returned to the UK to stand trial for Litvinenko's murder. On 22 May 2007 the Crown Prosecution Service called for the extradition of Russian citizen Andrei Lugovoi to the UK on charges of murder . Lugovoi dismissed the claims against him as "politically motivated" and said he did not kill Litvinenko.

Conversion to Islam

Two days before his death Litvinenko informed his father that he had converted to Islam. According to his father, Litvinenko had become increasingly disenchanted with the Russian Orthodox Church and had been contemplating conversion for "some time." Litvinenko's conversion to Islam and the related wish for Muslim funeral rites were recognized by his father. However, his widow, Marina, as well as his close friend (and press spokesman during his illness), Alexander Goldfarb, preferred a non-denominational ceremony. Goldfarb stated, "Unfortunately some people appeared and against the explicit wishes of the widow performed Muslim rites over the funeral. We had a choice to turn it into an unseemly situation, but Marina asked us to respect the memory of Alexander and let these people do what they did. Let God be their judge." Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, head of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, contended that Litvineko actually converted to Islam 10 days before he was poisoned.

Akhmed Zakayev, Foreign Minister of Chechen government-in-exile who lived next door to Mr Litvinenko and considered him "as a brother," said: "He was read to from the Qur'an the day before he died and had told his wife and family that he wanted to be buried in accordance with Muslim tradition."

Death and last statement

On 22 November, Litvinenko's medical staff at University College Hospital reported he had suffered a "major setback" due to either heart failure or an overnight heart attack; he died the following day. Scotland Yard reported that, "Inquiries continue into the circumstances surrounding how Mr Litvinenko, 43 years, of North London, became unwell."

On 24 November, a posthumous statement was released. Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb, who is also the chairman of Boris Berezovsky's Civil Liberties Fund, said Litvinenko had dictated it to him three days earlier. Andrei Nekrasov said his friend Litvinenko and Litvinenko's lawyer composed the statement in Russian on 21 November and translated it to English.

I would like to thank many people. My doctors, nurses and hospital staff who are doing all they can for me, the British police who are pursuing my case with vigour and professionalism and are watching over me and my family. I would like to thank the British government for taking me under their care. I am honoured to be a British citizen.

I would like to thank the British public for their messages of support and for the interest they have shown in my plight.

I thank my wife Marina, who has stood by me. My love for her and our son knows no bounds.

But as I lie here I can distinctly hear the beating of wings of the angel of death. I may be able to give him the slip but I have to say my legs do not run as fast as I would like. I think, therefore, that this may be the time to say one or two things to the person responsible for my present condition.

You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed.

You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value.

You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilised men and women.

You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life. May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people.

Putin disputed the authenticity of this note while attending a Russia-EU summit in Helsinki:

It is a pity that tragic events like death have been used for political provocations. Those who did it are not God, and Mr. Litvinenko is unfortunately not Lazarus.

Grave of Alexander Litvinenko at Highgate Cemetery

His postmortem took place on 1 December at the Royal London Hospital's institute of pathology. It was attended by three physicians, including one chosen by the family and one from the Foreign Office. Litvinenko was buried at Highgate Cemetery in north London on 7 December. The police are treating his death as murder. On 25 November, two days after Litvinenko's death, an article attributed to him was published by The Mail on Sunday entitled "Why I believe Putin wanted me dead".

In an interview with the BBC broadcast on 16 December 2006, Yuri Shvets said that Litvinenko had created a 'due diligence' report investigating the activities of a senior Kremlin official on behalf of a British company looking to invest "dozens of millions of dollars" in a project in Russia. He said the dossier was so incriminating about the senior Kremlin official, who was not named, it was likely that Litvinenko was murdered out of spite. He alleged that Litvinenko had shown the dossier to another business associate, Andrei Lugovoi, who had worked for the KGB and later the FSB. Shvets alleged that Lugovoi is still an FSB informant and he had spread copies of the dossier to members of the spy service. He said he was interviewed about his allegations by Scotland Yard detectives investigating Litvinenko's murder. Shvets has also doubted Litvinenko's capacity to perform honest unbiased due diligence. The poisoning and consequent death of Litvinenko was not widely covered in the Russian news media.

Alleged MI6 involvement

On October 27, 2007, the Daily Mail, citing unnamed "diplomatic and intelligence sources," stated that Litvinenko was paid about £2,000 per month by MI6 at the time of his murder. Allegedly, Sir John Scarlett, the current head of MI6, was personally involved in recruiting him. The claim was dismissed as "nonsense" by Litvinenko's wife. She said :

President Putin is providing Mr Lugovoy with his personal endorsement and backing in the eyes of the world. This indicates that Russia has something to hide and adds credence to Alexander's deathbed statement naming Mr Putin as the instigator of his murder.

Alexander Goldfarb states that the version of enlisting of Litvinenko into MI6 is not likely. Litvinenko was taken abroad from Russia by Goldfarb and Yuri Felshtinsky, not by MI6. Both Felshtinsky and Goldfarb are American citizens and as such they could not be recruited as MI6 agents.

See also

References

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  2. ^ "Alexander Litvinenko obituary". The Independent. 2006-11-25. Retrieved 2006-01-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. "From Russia with secrets". Times Online. May 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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  6. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070829/75649246.html
  7. "Ushering in the era of nuclear terrorism", by Patterson, Andrew J. MD, PhD, Critical Care Medicine, v. 35, p.953-954, 2007.
  8. "Beyond the Dirty Bomb: Re-thinking Radiological Terror", by James M. Acton; M. Brooke Rogers; Peter D. Zimmerman, DOI: 10.1080/00396330701564760, Survival, Volume 49, Issue 3 September 2007, pages 151 - 168
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  10. Radiological Terrorism: “Soft Killers” by Morten Bremer Mærli, Bellona Foundation
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  13. Template:Ru iconАлександр Подрабинек (2002-10-10). "Офицер ФСБ дает показания". Агентство ПРИМА. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. Russia and Islam are not Separate: Why Russia backs Al-Qaeda, by Konstantin Preobrazhensky. According to Preobrazhenskiy, "At that time, Litvinenko was the Head of the Subdivision for Internationally Wanted Terrorists of the First Department of the Operative-Inquiry Directorate of the FSB Anti-Terrorist Department. He was ordered to undertake the delicate mission of securing Al-Zawahiri from unintentional disclosure by the Russian police. Though Al-Zawahiri had been brought to Russia by the FSB using a false passport, it was still possible for the police to learn about his arrival and report to Moscow for verification. Such a process could disclose Al-Zawahiri as an FSB collaborator. In order to prevent this, Litvinenko visited a group of the highly placed police officers to notify them in advance."
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  35. Where is "ABUBAKAR?"
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