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Alexander Litvinenko

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Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (Russian: Александр Вальтерович Литвиненко, born 1962, died 23rd November, 2006) is a British citizen, an ex-KGB colonel, and ex-FSB lieutenant-colonel.

Background

Alexander Litvinenko was born in the Russian city of Voronezh, where he graduated from a Soviet secondary school in 1980. He was then drafted into the Soviet Army and based on his merit, receiving frequent promotions through the ranks of private to lieutenant-colonel. In 1988, he began serving in the counterintelligence agencies of the Soviet KGB, and in 1991, was promoted to the Central Staff of the MB-FSK-FSB of Russia, specializing in counter-terrorist activities and infiltration of organized crime. He was awarded the title of "MUR veteran" for operations conducted with MUR (Moscow criminal investigation department). Litvinenko also saw active military service in many of the so-called "hot spots" of the former USSR and Russia, and in 1997, he was again promoted to the most secret department of the Russian FSB, the Department for the Analysis of Criminal Organizations with the title of senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh section.

Dissidence

Litvinenko was a specialist in fighting organized crime. In 1998, he claimed that his superiors had ordered the killing of Boris Berezovsky, a businessman who then held the high government post of Secretary of the Security Council and was close to President Boris Yeltsin. Litvinenko claims that he was dismissed from the FSB, and then arrested twice on false charges which were dropped after he had spent time in harsh Moscow prisons.

Arrested for a third time in 2000 on charges of faking evidence in an investigation, Litvinenko fled before he could be imprisoned. He made his way without a passport to Turkey, where he joined his wife Marina and their son Anatoly, who had left Moscow on tourist visas. On 1 November, 2000, they emigrated to the United Kingdom, claiming political asylum, and in October 2006 he became a British citizen.[citation needed] He has extensively criticised the regime of President Vladimir Putin, particularly its position on Chechnya. One of the highest-profile defectors from the FSB, he is on the wanted list in Moscow.[citation needed]

In the book Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within, Litvinenko alleged that agents from the FSB co-ordinated the 1999 apartment block bombings in Russia that killed more than 300 people. Russian officials blamed the explosions on Chechen separatists and in that year the Kremlin launched a new military offensive on Chechnya. In the book Gang from Lubyanka (Лубянская преступная группировка), Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin was personally involved in organized crime during his work in FSB.

In a July 2005 interview with Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Litvinenko alleged that Ayman al-Zawahiri, along with other al-Qaeda leaders, was trained by the FSB in Dagestan (a republic neighbouring Chechnya) in 1998.[1]

In April 2006, a British MEP for London, Gerard Batten (UKIP), cited allegations by Litvinenko that Romano Prodi, the Italian Centre-Left leader (now Prime Minister) 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,[2]) 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". Among Litvinenko's most serious claims is that Prodi assisted in the protection of KGB operatives allegedly involved in the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981.[3]

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".[4]

Sudden critical illness

On 1 November, 2006, Litvinenko fell suddenly ill while investigating the death of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. He had had lunch at Itsu, a sushi restaurant on Piccadilly, with an Italian acquaintance, Mario Scaramella, to whom he made the allegations regarding Prodi.[5] Scaramella, attached to the Mitrokhin Commission investigating KGB penetration of Italian politics, claimed to have information on the murder of Politkovskaya, 48, the journalist who was killed at her Moscow apartment in October 2006. He passed Litvinenko papers on the Russian journalist's fate. On 20 November, it was reported that Scaramella had gone into hiding and was in fear for his life.[6]

Oleg Gordievsky, another former KGB colonel who defected to the UK (and a longtime acquaintance of Litvinenko), told the BBC he believed Litvinenko was poisoned at the flat of an old Russian friend with whom he had tea before going to the meeting at the sushi restaurant.

Thallium poisoning

Scotland Yard is investigating claims that Litvinenko was poisoned by thallium. Preliminary tests appeared to confirm the presence of the poison, which is colourless, odourless, and completely water-soluble. Thallium was once a common ingredient in rat poison, but its use was restricted in the 1970s, and it is now difficult to obtain. Litvinenko is said to have ingested a potentially fatal dose.[7][8] Among the distinctive effects of thallium poisoning are hair loss and damage to peripheral nerves,[9] and a photo released of Litvinenko in the hospital indeed shows his hair to have fallen out. Litvinenko attributed his survival to his cardiovascular fitness and swift medical treatment. It has been suggested that a radioactive isotope of thallium may have been used.[10]

However, Dr. Amit Nathwani, one of Litvineko's physicians, reported "His symptoms are slightly odd for thallium poisoning, and the levels of thallium we were able to detect are not the kind of levels you'd see in toxicity, but it is also quite possible that we may never find the ultimate cause."[11] Following a deterioration of his condition on 20 November, Litvinenko was moved into intensive care. On 23 November, an X-ray was said to have revealed three small objects in his intestines, but their relevance to the poisoning in unclear, and no further comment has yet been made by the hospital. It has been reported that his doctors have given him a 50/50 chance of survival over the three- to four-week period following the poisoning.[9]

Media reaction and past cases

The incident was widely covered in the British media on 19 November 2006, with much speculation that he may have been poisoned by Russian secret service. Comparisons have been made to the 2004 poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko and the 1978 poisoning of the journalist Georgi Markov by the Bulgarian State Security. The incident with Litvinenko has also attracted comparisons to the poisoning by radioactive thallium of KGB defector Nikolay Khokhlov and journalist Yuri Schekochikhin of Novaya Gazeta (the Novaya Gazeta interview with the former was prepared by Anna Politkovskaya).[12] Like Litvinenko, Yuri Schekochikhin had investigated the Russian apartment bombings (he was a member of Kovalev Commission that hired Litvinenko's friend Mikhail Trepashkin as a legal counsel).

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, dismissed the idea of Putin's involvement as "pure nonsense".[13]

An article in the London Evening Standard on November 21, 2006 suggested that Litvinenko had passed a tape recording to British Intellegence that contained allegations about the President of Russia. In particular, according to the Standard, Litvinenko said in the tape that a sting operation was performed against Putin in 1999, linked to a scandal with then Prosecutor General Yury Skuratov (A Russian national TV channel had shown a CCTV-type secret filming of a man, who was claimed (but not proven) to be Skuratov, engaged in sexual activity with prostitutes). Litvinenko claimed that a similar compromising videotape exists showing Vladimir Putin in a sexually explicit situation, and that this tape circulated in Moscow for several years. [1]

References

  1. ^ Nyquist, J.R. (20 November 2006). "Kremlin Poison". Financial Sense Online. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "Former FSB General, Wife Shot Dead in Moscow". Mosnews.com. April 11 2005. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ Donnelly, Cillian (April 3 2006). "Prodi Accused Of Being Former Soviet Agent". EU Reporter. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Batten, Gerard (26 April 2006). "2006: Speech in the European Parliament: Romano Prodi". Gerard Batten MEP. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Batten, Gerard (April 3 2006). "Gerard Batten MEP - "60 second speech to the European Parliament "Romano Prodi" - Strasbourg". UKIP. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Owen, Richard (November 20 2006). "Exile's contact in hiding after 'being made a scapegoat'". The Times. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Townsend, Mark (19 November 2006). "Poisoning of Russian agent raises fears of UK vendetta". Guardian. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Murphy, Kim (21 November 2006). "Who poisoned a former KGB agent?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ a b "Ex-spy's '50% chance of survival'". Guardian. 19 November 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-11-20-spy_x.htm?csp=34
  11. ^ "Doctors in dark on poisoned ex-spy". CNN. 21 November 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Template:Ru icon"ВСТРЕЧА С ПРОШЛЫМ". novayagazeta. 1 January 2004. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Laville, Sandra (November 21 2006). "Clinging to life and under armed guard, the spy the Kremlin denies poisoning". The Guardian. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Books

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