Poisoned: Spy Who Quit Russia For Britain (Aleksander Litvinenko)

[techybloke666]

He did it to himself , he did
And that's what really hurts
Is that He did it to himself
Just him and no-one else
He did it to himself
He did it to himself

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

He did it to himself , he did
And that's what really hurts
Is that He did it to himself
Just him and no-one else
He did it to himself
He did it to himself

sick, very sick.:lol:

i have a feeling an earlier number from the oxford optimists might be equally fitting.


I cant afford to breathe in this town
Nowhere to sit with out a gun in my hand
Look back up to the cathode ray...

Im better off dead
Im better off dead
Im better off...

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

UK wants to try Russian for Litvinenko murder


The British government is preparing to demand the extradition of a Russian businessman to stand trial for the poisoning with polonium-210 of the former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko. Senior Whitehall officials have told the Guardian that a Scotland Yard file on the murder which is about to be passed to the Crown Prosecution Service alleges that there is sufficient evidence against Andrei Lugovoi for the CPS to decide whether he should face prosecution.

The government is already bracing itself for the cooling of relations with Moscow, which it believes will be an inevitable consequence of an extradition request. The request could be made as early as next month and government officials are convinced the Kremlin will demand, in return, the extradition of Boris Berezovsky, the Russian millionaire oligarch who was granted asylum in the UK.

Mr Lugovoi, 41, a former bodyguard with the KGB, was one of several people interviewed by detectives from Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command in Moscow last month. The Yard is declining to comment on the case and details of the alleged evidence against Mr Lugovoi remain unclear.

The businessman has repeatedly denied any involvement in the murder, and last night told the Guardian: 'I am not guilty. I have nothing to do with the killing of Litvinenko.' He added that he was unaware that Scotland Yard was planning to seek his extradition.

Mr Lugovoi met Mr Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, London, on November 1. Mr Litvinenko fell ill shortly afterwards and died in University College Hospital, London, on November 23. In the intervening period, Mr Lugovoi appeared to leave a trail of radioactive polonium-210 at a number of offices and hotels around London, and traces of the substance were also found on board an aircraft in which he travelled.

Several other people have also tested positive for polonium-210, however, including eight members of staff and one other guest at the Millennium Hotel. Dimitri Kovtun, a Russian business associate of Mr Lugovoi who was present at the hotel meeting, was also contaminated.

On his return to Moscow, Mr Lugovoi called a televised press conference to protest his innocence, and pointed out that traces of polonium-210 had been found on his wife and children. 'To think that I would handle the stuff and put them at risk is ludicrous,' he said. 'Someone is trying to set me up. But I can't understand who. Or why.'Associates of the dead man have repeatedly accused President Vladimir Putin's government of being behind his murder, a claim the Kremlin rejects. While it is known that detectives believe they have uncovered evidence pointing to Mr Lugovoi's involvement, it is not clear whether they have established a motive for the murder.

Any attempt to extradite Mr Lugovoi could founder on the Russian constitution, which offers citizens protection against enforced removal from the country. However, senior British government officials have told the Guardian that officials in Moscow have already indicated their willingness to strike a deal which would see the suspect being handed over in return for Mr Berezovsky's extradition. Mr Berezovsky amassed his estimated 800m fortune during Russia's rush to privatisation in the 1990s, and fled to the UK after falling out with President Putin six years ago. Mr Litvinenko followed him, claiming that he had been instructed to murder Mr Berezovsky.

The oligarch has already fought off one extradition attempt, after Moscow accused him of large-scale fraud. After that charge was dropped, the Kremlin accused him of plotting to overthrow the government by force.

He cannot be forced to return to Russia, however, as the UK courts have ruled that the charges against him are politically-motivated and that he could not expect to receive a fair trial.

Government officials say that they have difficulty trying to explain to the Russian authorities that the UK courts are entirely independent, and that Mr Berezovsky cannot be extradited once the courts have ruled against such a move. As a result, there is growing nervousness in Whitehall over the possibility of a diplomatic rift, and about the economic consequences.

British business is heavily involved in Russia, with direct investment of nearly 2bn and exports of close to 3bn in 2005.The Kremlin has frequently used punitive economic measures as a blunt diplomatic tool. It cut off the gas supply to Ukraine and Belarus in the midst of political disputes, raising anxiety within the EU over Europe's dependence on Moscow for energy supplies. Last month Shell was forced to sell its controlling share in the world's biggest oil and gas venture, Sakhalin 2, to the Russian energy giant Gazprom. BP has also come under pressure to give up some of its share in a UK-Russian oil company, TNK-BP. It has been targeted by the state licensing agency, Rosnedra, which is threatening to strip it of its permit for a string of alleged infringements.

Meanwhile, the Health Protection Agency reported yesterday that a total of 129 people appear to have been exposed to polonium-210, and that 13 of them were at a small risk of long-term illness. Traces of radiation have been found at 20 locations in London, and several remain sealed off. Main playersAlexander Litvinenko

A former officer of the KGB and its successor, the FSB, Litvinenko fled to Britain in 2001, claiming he had been ordered to murder the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. He then accused his former superiors of organising a bombing campaign to trigger war in Chechnya. Died of radioactive poisoning, aged 44, on November 23.

Andrei Lugovoi

A former bodyguard with the KGB, and now a successful Moscow businessman whose company, Pershin, controls a security consultancy and a soft drinks manufacturer and employs around 500 people. Mr Lugovoi, 41, met Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel in London on November 1, hours before the ex-spy fell ill, but denies any role in the murder.

Dimitri Kovtun

An old friend of Mr Lugovoi from their days in the KGB, he is now a Moscow-based businessman and was at the meeting at the Millennium Hotel. Kovtun, 42, was contaminated with polonium-210 and traces have also been found in Hamburg, where he had visited his ex-wife. He too denies any involvement.

Mario Scaramella

An Italian self-styled security consultant who claims to have met Litvinenko on the day the Russian was poisoned, to warn of a plot against his life. He too appeared to have been poisoned, but that was later discovered to have been the result of a testing error. On his return to Rome, Scaramella, 36, was arrested on suspicion of gun-running and violating state secrets.

Boris Berezovsky

Russian billionaire created his empire during Russia's privatisation drive and fled to the UK after falling out with Vladimir Putin six years ago.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/sto ... 04,00.html

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Litvinenko photo used in Russian target practice

MOSCOW---- The head of a center that trains security personnel and held a competition for Russian special forces confirmed Tuesday that it has used shooting targets showing the photo of a former agent who was fatally poisoned in London last year.

continues

http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/2356 ... 07.article

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Police hand over Litvinenko file


Scotland Yard has handed a file on the investigation into the death of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The 43-year-old, a fierce critic of the Kremlin, died in hospital in London in November last year. His body contained the radioactive substance polonium-210.

Police have said they cannot reveal the contents of the file.

Prosecutors will now consider whether there is sufficient evidence to charge anyone over Mr Litvinenko's death.

Secret agents

Mr Litvinenko is reported to have fallen out with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the late 1990s.

At the end of last year, Scotland Yard officers travelled to Russia to question witnesses in the case.

Mr Litvinenko, a former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, met three other former Russian secret agents just before he fell ill in London - Dmitry Kovtun, Andrei Lugovoi and Vyacheslav Sokolenko. They have denied any involvement in his poisoning.

His friends have accused the Kremlin of ordering his assassination in response to his criticism of President Vladimir Putin. The Russian government has rejected the claims.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6317129.stm

will it matter?

Russia will not extradite Lugovoy -Ifax

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia would not extradite Andrei Lugovoy if Britain asked for him to be handed over to stand trial for poisoning ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, a source in the prosecutor-general's office told Interfax news agency on Friday.

continues

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=138022007

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

RUSSIAN SECURITY SERVICE `BEHIND LITVINENKO MURDER'

By Neville Dean, PA Crime Correspondent

A Russian historian who co-authored a book with poisoned former spy Alexander Litvinenko has told British detectives that the Russian security service was behind his murder.
Yuri Felshtinsky, who has defied the security advice of the FBI to travel to London from his adopted home in the United States, met Scotland Yard officers for the first time yesterday afternoon.
Despite death threats and the fact that several other people connected to his book are now dead, Mr Felshtinsky decided to return to the city where Mr Litvinenko was poisoned to give his statement to police.
He spent several hours with the Yard's investigating team yesterday, discussing ``everything you could imagine'' about the Litvinenko case and his own encounter in London with one of the alleged suspects.
Mr Felshtinsky revealed today that he met Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi less than three weeks before the day Mr Litvinenko was allegedly poisoned at a Mayfair hotel.
He claims there is ``no doubt'' that the Russian security service, the FSB - a successor to the KGB - orchestrated Mr Litvinenko's death as revenge for his perceived betrayal of the organisation.
It comes after another Russian exile, billionaire Boris Berezovsky, disclosed that, on his deathbed, Mr Litvinenko had claimed Mr Lugovoi, an ex-KGB officer, was responsible.
Mr Berezovsky told the BBC's Newsnight programme last night that his friend had told him: ``I think Lugovoi is involved in my poison.'' Mr Lugovoi has vehemently denied any involvement in Mr Litvinenko's death.
Mr Felshtinsky revealed today that he and Mr Lugovoi had a ``chance'' encounter in Piccadilly in October last year, less than three weeks before the latter met Mr Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square.
It was there, on November 1, that Mr Litvinenko, a former FSB officer, was allegedly poisoned by the radioactive substance polonium 210 in a cup of tea.
Mr Felshtinsky said he had known Mr Lugovoi since the days when he was responsible for Mr Berezovsky's security in Moscow.
The now-exiled billionaire used to be a major shareholder in Russia's main television channel, for which Mr Lugovoi used to handle security.
``We stopped and talked for six or seven minutes,'' Mr Felshtinsky said of his encounter with Mr Lugovoi on October 12 last year.
``It was a chance meeting in the street.
``We discussed no serious issues at all, it was small talk. The FBI was interested to know whether this meeting was not by chance, that Lugovoi knew that I was coming to London.
``I do not know. I do not have any answer to this question.'' It was the FBI who advised Mr Felshtinsky not to travel to London last month for the relaunch of his and Mr Litvinenko's controversial book, Blowing Up Russia, on the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings and the rise of President Vladimir Putin.
It claims the Russian security service, the FSB, secretly carried out the bombings to rally support for a new war in Chechnya and to convince the Russian people to elect the FSB's own candidate for the presidency, Mr Putin.
Mr Felshtinsky admits that if Mr Litvinenko had not been involved in the book, he would probably still be alive.
But he is in Britain and is determined to help the police with their investigation into his friend's death.
``I hope that the information I submitted to them is useful,'' he said.
``We had a conversation which continued for several hours, we covered everything you could imagine - who I thought was behind the murder, what would be the main reason for it.'' Mr Felshtinsky believes there is little doubt about where the order for Mr Litvinenko's assassination came from.
``If this operation was conducted by the central office of the FSB, and I think that is exactly how this was done, there were a lot of people involved,'' he said.
``There were probably a lot of people involved in Russia in helping this operation - but as in any political murder, we will never know everything.
``There is a saying that there are no former members of the FSB. Once you have started to serve for this organisation, you are an FSB officer for ever. That, unfortunately, happens to be a dark truth about this situation.
``Once you are a member, you stay a member for ever and if they give you an order, you follow the order.'' Mr Felshtinsky professes not to worry unduly for his own security. Certainly, as he sips a coffee in a central London hotel, he does not wear the look of a man in fear of his life.
His security is more of a concern to his family, he says.
But he says that while Vladimir Putin's regime is in charge in Russia, no one who speaks out against it is ever completely safe.
``For the first time we now have a system where the security service is ruling the country,'' he said.
``There is no reason for this organisation to exist, unless it is as a tool to fight democracy against democracy.
``That is why this organisation was created, to fight against democracy on behalf of the Communist Party both inside and outside of the Soviet Union. The same people are doing the same job, only now they are in charge of Russia.'' Mr Felshtinsky last spoke to Mr Litvinenko on November 8 last year when he had already fallen ill and was in hospital. At the time, the prognosis was good and the former spy believed he would live.
``I did not know then that would be our last conversation,'' he said.
``Alexander was sure that he had survived an assassination attempt that they tried to poison him. Marina, his wife, was very optimistic. We all thought that in a couple of days he would be back in his house.'' At that time nobody knew what the poison was, although they suspected it might be the heavy metal thallium.
It would be another 10 days before the radiation would really start to take its horrific toll.
``Alexander thought a British passport was going to be the best security for him - but he was killed only a couple of weeks after he received it,'' Mr Felshtinsky said. ``He was a British citizen when he was killed.
``There were several people who were killed in connection with the book. If Alexander had not been involved in this research, I think he would be alive now.
``Now, after Alexander has been killed, it has proved what was written is exactly what is going on in Russia.'' ends

 

[crunchy5]

Never trust a man who's name looks so mutch like Feltchstinky he can only be taking the piss, or something.

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Never trust a man who's name looks so mutch like Feltchstinky he can only be taking the piss, or something.

i take it you won't be voting for Ed Balls if he stands for Pm then?

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

Honestly, what a lot of tin foil hat wearing Conspiracy Theorists.

It should be obvious to everyone that Litvinenko and his business associate simply ate some contaminated seafood, which didn't agree with the business associate, so he probably left it to the side of his plate, touching it with his fingers, or accidentally dropped it on the floor, stepping in it and tramping it throughout central London, much to everyone's annoyance. Simply a million to one accident and a series of unfortunate events.

If this had happened to a Westerner, no one would have noticed.

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Honestly, what a lot of tin foil hat wearing Conspiracy Theorists.

It should be obvious to everyone that Litvinenko and his business associate simply ate some contaminated seafood, which didn't agree with the business associate, so he probably left it to the side of his plate, touching it with his fingers, or accidentally dropped it on the floor, stepping in it and tramping it throughout central London, much to everyone's annoyance. Simply a million to one accident and a series of unfortunate events.

If this had happened to a Westerner, no one would have noticed.

quite. the tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists should then have their arguments torn apart by the more rational commentators. i'm sure once those commentators put forward some plausible theories themselves then we'll see how ridiculous and formed through prejudice the rantings of the CT's really are. this is usually the pattern.

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

...

quite. the tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists should then have their arguments torn apart by the more rational commentators. i'm sure once those commentators put forward some plausible theories themselves then we'll see how ridiculous and formed through prejudice the rantings of the CT's really are. this is usually the pattern.

Unfortunately, most of the 'plausible theories' being put forward and general debunking being done, by 'the more rational commentators', are only available in Russian and my browser doesn't do Cyrillic.

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Unfortunately, most of the 'plausible theories' being put forward and general debunking being done, by 'the more rational commentators', are only available in Russian and my browser doesn't do Cyrillic.

so how do you know the theories are plausible if you don't have access to them?

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

...

so how do you know the theories are plausible if you don't have access to them?

Because they're 'official'.

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

...

so how do you know the theories are plausible if you don't have access to them?

Because they're 'official'.

well if by 'official' you mean better researched than and capable of disproving the wild theories which stand in opposition to them then i'd guess they would be valid. still, it would be nice to hear them rather than the politically/psychologically driven accusations of conspiracy theorists who seem incapable of producing evidence to the contrary.

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

... still, it would be nice to hear them rather than the politically/psychologically driven accusations of conspiracy theorists who seem incapable of producing evidence to the contrary.

I quite agree.

Your wish is my command. BBC Radio4, tinfoil hat wearing Conspiracy Theorists have a go at the Russian security and health services and accuse them of a series of conspiracies, involving murders, assassinations and cover-ups. All very anti-Russian and the Russian authorities refute them:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/file_on_4/6324241.stm

Listen Again:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/fileon4

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

... still, it would be nice to hear them rather than the politically/psychologically driven accusations of conspiracy theorists who seem incapable of producing evidence to the contrary.

I quite agree.

Your wish is my command. BBC Radio4, tinfoil hat wearing Conspiracy Theorists have a go at the Russian security and health services and accuse them of a series of conspiracies, involving murders, assassinations and cover-ups. All very anti-Russian and the Russian authorities refute them:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/file_on_4/6324241.stm

Listen Again:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/fileon4

interesting, an article which appeared a couple of days ago and was ignored by posters on this board. i can only guess they didn't bother posting since it offered little more than allusion in the case of litvinenko.

up til that point presumably you were duped like everyone else, i'm assuming.just out of curiousity, as a reformed hat wearer, who are the tin foil hat wearers that you referred to earlier in the thread and what is the nature of the charge that they foolishly believe?

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

... who are the tin foil hat wearers that you referred to earlier in the thread and what is the nature of the charge that they foolishly believe?

RUSSIAN SECURITY SERVICE `BEHIND LITVINENKO MURDER'

By Neville Dean, PA Crime Correspondent

A Russian historian who co-authored a book with poisoned former spy Alexander Litvinenko has told British detectives that the Russian security service was behind his murder. ...

Tinfoil hat wearing, Conspiracy Theorists, all. 8)

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

... who are the tin foil hat wearers that you referred to earlier in the thread and what is the nature of the charge that they foolishly believe?

RUSSIAN SECURITY SERVICE `BEHIND LITVINENKO MURDER'

By Neville Dean, PA Crime Correspondent

A Russian historian who co-authored a book with poisoned former spy Alexander Litvinenko has told British detectives that the Russian security service was behind his murder. ...

Tinfoil hat wearing, Conspiracy Theorists, all. 8)

aah, right. i'm sorry i made the mistake of thinking that because you used the plural and referred to multiples of people you might be making that charge against more than one person. sorry for making assumptions based on the level of your language skills.

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

...

aah, right. i'm sorry i made the mistake of thinking that because you used the plural and referred to multiples of people you might be making that charge against more than one person. sorry for making assumptions based on the level of your language skills.

Obviously, I was including you as the poster of all this Conspiracy Theory material, as well as the British detectives involved on the case.

Scotland Yard wants to resume Moscow probe into Litvinenko death

Scotland Yard has requested permission from Russia once again to send a team of investigators to Moscow to prove the murder of the former KGB colonel Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko died in a London hospital last November, three weeks after being poisoned by the radioactive isotope polonium-210. From his deathbed, he accused President Putin of having a hand in his death - a charge that the Kremlin refutes.

...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... tr=Britain

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

...

aah, right. i'm sorry i made the mistake of thinking that because you used the plural and referred to multiples of people you might be making that charge against more than one person. sorry for making assumptions based on the level of your language skills.

Obviously, I was including you as the poster of all this Conspiracy Theory material, as well as the British detectives involved on the case.

Scotland Yard wants to resume Moscow probe into Litvinenko death

Scotland Yard has requested permission from Russia once again to send a team of investigators to Moscow to prove the murder of the former KGB colonel Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko died in a London hospital last November, three weeks after being poisoned by the radioactive isotope polonium-210. From his deathbed, he accused President Putin of having a hand in his death - a charge that the Kremlin refutes.

...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... tr=Britain

well that's nice. i didn't realise i had to unquestioningly believe every article from mainstream news sources which foreshadow and shape the events concerning a given topic. thanks for clarifying my position for me. so as to avoid confusion in future perhaps i'll stick to snide remarks and diversionary ranting that contributes much more to the debate. maybe i'll swap my tin foil hat for a bunnet with a bee in it. maybe to save everybody time i might just let my obsession get the better of me. the only thing is is it better to do so directly or do so in a fashion that i believe makes me look witty and ironic.

it's a tough choice.

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

...

well that's nice. i didn't realise i had to unquestioningly believe every article from mainstream news sources which foreshadow and shape the events concerning a given topic. thanks for clarifying my position for me. so as to avoid confusion in future perhaps i'll stick to snide remarks and diversionary ranting that contributes much more to the debate. maybe i'll swap my tin foil hat for a bunnet with a bee in it. maybe to save everybody time i might just let my obsession get the better of me. the only thing is is it better to do so directly or do so in a fashion that i believe makes me look witty and ironic.

it's a tough choice.

No doubt you'll work it out eventually.

 

[WhistlingJack]

Litvinenko supporter shot in US

Litvinenko supporter shot in US

The FBI and US police are investigating the shooting of a Russian intelligence analyst, days after he said Moscow was involved in a former KGB agent's death.

Paul Joyal, 53, was shot several times as he returned to his home in the suburbs of Washington DC on Thursday.

Reports say Mr Joyal had a wallet and briefcase stolen in an attack that appeared to be a random robbery.

But the timing has raised concern that he was targeted for expressing his views on the Alexander Litvinenko case.

Mr Litvinenko, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian security services, died in November in London after being poisoned by radioactive substance polonium-210.

He and his associates accused Russia of carrying out the poisoning because of his fierce opposition to Mr Putin, who has denied any involvement.

Hospital officials said Mr Joyal was in a critical condition.

Four days before he was shot, Mr Joyal told NBC's Dateline television programme that he had struck up a friendship with the former agent during trips to London.

In his interview, Mr Joyal said: "A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin - 'if you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you and we will silence you - in the most horrible way possible'."

The FBI told the BBC that it was helping the Prince George's County police department in the investigation, but had not opened its own inquiry.

Mr Joyal - a former police officer - runs a consultancy specialising in intelligence information for companies wishing to invest in the former Soviet republics.

Mr Litvinenko was granted asylum in the UK in 2000.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/03/05 11:32:25 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Doubts raised over London poison link to shooting in US


A former senior KGB officer who met a Russia intelligence expert just hours before his shooting in the US, yesterday expressed doubt that the incident was related to the case of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer poisoned last year in London.The Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting a local police inquiry into the shooting on Thursday of Paul Joyal, a former Senate intelligence committee security director and editor of a newsletter on Russia. Mr Joyal recently accused the Kremlin on US national television of involvement in the Litvinenko death.Oleg Kalugin, the former head of KGB counter-intelligence who on Thursday evening met Mr Joyal at Zola, a bar in the International Spy Museum building in Washington, said he would not rule out a connection with the Litvinenko case. But he said the shooting was more likely to be a local crime.'I have doubts because of the way it went down,' said Mr Kalugin. 'It does not fit well with the pattern of security services [in Russia] as I know them.'Local police would not comment. But a law-enforcement official said Mr Joyal, who remains in a critical condition, appeared to have been the victim of a robbery. The official said he was shot after resisting two men who had robbed him.The case has raised interest partly because Daniel McGrory, a reporter with The Times who appeared on the same NBC programme as Mr Joyal, died five days before the broadcast. There has been no official an-nouncement about the cause of death but he is believed to have died from a stroke.Alex Goldfarb, a friend of Mr Litvinenko and acquaintance of Mr Joyal, was also sceptical about Russian government involvement but he too would not rule it out.'It looks like a regular street mugging,' he said. 'But in Soviet times, when they wanted to organise a hit on someone they would hire someone local.'Mr Goldfarb, who met Mr Joyal several weeks ago, said Mr Joyal was pushing for Senate hearings on the Litvinenko affair and was hoping Mr Goldfarb would testify. He said he had received a text message from Mr Joyal before the shooting saying he was discussing the possibility of congressional hearings with Mr Kalugin.Mr Joyal, an employee of National Strategies, told NBC's Dateline in a programme broadcast last month, that the Litvinenko killing was intended to send a message. 'A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin. 'If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you and we will silence you in the most horrible way possible',' Mr Joyal said.The Kremlin has strongly denied any suggestions that it was involved in the poisoning of Litvinenko, a fierce critic of the Russian regime. British police are investigating his death.NBC has provided bodyguards for reporters who worked on the programme about the Litvinenko case.

Link

I'm surprised that this piece of information (the death of McGrory) has slipped by. I wonder what the relationship to The Times is?

[Emp edit: Fixing big link]

 

[lopaka]

Re: Litvinenko supporter shot in US

Litvinenko supporter shot in US

The FBI and US police are investigating the shooting of a Russian intelligence analyst, days after he said Moscow was involved in a former KGB agent's death.

Paul Joyal, 53, was shot several times as he returned to his home in the suburbs of Washington DC on Thursday.

Reports say Mr Joyal had a wallet and briefcase stolen in an attack that appeared to be a random robbery.

The wife of an expert on Russian intelligence who was shot last week challenged reports Monday that her husband had been robbed.

In a brief interview at the couple's suburban Washington home, Elizabeth Joyal said reports that Paul Joyal's wallet and briefcase were taken were false. She didn't know of any motive for Thursday's shooting outside their home in what she said was a normally safe area.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/ ... 87384.html

Even if nothing was stolen it doesn't neccisarily make it not-a-botched-robbery, but still, assuming the wife is on the level, one wonders where the inaccurate reports came from.

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Russian faces Litvinenko charge

A Russian former KGB officer should be charged with the murder by poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, the UK's director of public prosecutions has recommended.
Sir Ken Macdonald said Andrei Lugovoi, who has denied any involvement, should face trial for the "grave crime".

Mr Litvinenko, 43, an ex-FSB agent and a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in London last November.

But a spokesman for the Kremlin said Russia's constitution did not allow its nationals to be extradited.

'Awaiting action'

A spokesman added it was waiting for the "British side to actually do something rather than make statements".

The Russian general prosecution service also said there was "no way" Mr Lugovoi could be extradited because of constitutional constraints.

But the service's spokesman added that a Russian citizen who had committed a crime in another country "should be prosecuted in Russia with evidence provided by the foreign state".

Earlier UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said she had told the Russian ambassador that she expected "full co-operation" with regards extraditing Mr Lugovoi.

The decision to prosecute was arrived at by the Crown Prosecution Service after consultation with Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, who advises the government on legal issues.

'Public interest'

Mr Litvinenko, who was granted political asylum in the UK in 2000 after leaving Russia and went on to take British citizenship, died at University College Hospital on 23 November.

He had been exposed to the radioactive isotope polonium-210.

Sir Ken told a news conference: "I have today concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoi with the murder of Mr Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning.

"I have further concluded that a prosecution of this case would clearly be in the public interest.

"In those circumstances, I have instructed CPS lawyers to take immediate steps to seek the early extradition of Andrei Lugovoi from Russia to the United Kingdom, so that he may be charged with murder - and be brought swiftly before a court in London to be prosecuted for this extraordinarily grave crime."

International investigation

Mr Litvinenko's widow Marina said that she welcomed the decision on what was a "big day" for her.

She said: "I am now very anxious to see that justice is really done and that Mr Lugovoi is extradited and brought to trial in a UK court."

She added that any court case should be held in Britain, and that she believed more than one person was responsible for her husband's death.

The counter-terrorism command of the Metropolitan Police has been conducting a detailed international investigation into Mr Litvinenko's death. The police inquiry, during which officers followed a trail of polonium radioactivity at a series of locations visited by Mr Litvinenko in London before he died, eventually took them to Moscow.

His friends, including London-based Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, have accused the Kremlin of ordering his assassination but the Russian government has rejected such claims.

Police passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service in January.

Diplomatic relations between Russia and the UK have been strained by the case and BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera said it was hard to see how Mr Lugovoi could be extradited given Moscow's attitude.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary had met with the Russian ambassador to "underline that they should comply with the extradition request".

He added the government has "left nobody in any doubt at all as to the seriousness with which we view this case".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6678887.stm

 

[WhistlingJack]

Did This Man Kill Litvinenko?

Did this man kill Litvinenko?



By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes

BBC News, Moscow

As Britain seeks the extradition of former KGB-agent Andrei Lugovoi, the chief suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, our correspondent goes to meet the man who continues to protest his innocence.

The first time I met Andrei Lugovoi in his Moscow office he offered me a cup of tea. I hesitated. He laughed. Lugovoi was relaxed, amused by my discomfort, not at all on the defensive.

A month later I met him again, this time at a petrol station on the Moscow ring road.

He jumped out of his large Toyota four wheel drive a cheeky grin on his face. "How are you?" he said reaching out to shake my hand.

Andrei Lugovoi is quite a charmer, and quite a showman.

Thick snow was still on the ground as we pulled up at his walled compound deep in the forest outside Moscow.

We entered a large building that looked like a gymnasium.

Inside stood a group of men in military fatigues with thick necks and close-cropped hair.

"How about some shooting?" suggested Mr Lugovoi. "This is the only private shooting range of its type in Moscow" he told me proudly.

Guns and boxes of ammunition appeared on a large table. Quickly and silently the guns were loaded.

The thick set men sprang in to action: running, crouching, firing, reloading. It was an impressive show.

But what about Lugovoi himself. Would he perform for the camera?

"No problem," he said. He picked up a gun and proceeded to fire off round after round, pausing to reload, and then firing away again.

It is not the sort of thing I would do if I were under investigation for murder.

But then there are lots of things about Mr Lugovoi that do not make sense.

For a start, Andrei Lugovoi is not an obvious assassin.

Much of the Western media has dwelt on his background in the KGB, suggesting he is some kind of ex-spy.

But Andrei Lugovoi has never been a spy. He is, and always has been, a bodyguard.

The next peculiar thing about Mr Lugovoi is his list of friends and clients.

If Mr Lugovoi is an agent of the Russian state, as some have suggested, then he keeps pretty strange company.

His oldest client, the man who first hired him as a bodyguard after he left the KGB, is none other than Boris Berezovsky.

For those who are not familiar with Mr Berezovsky, he is the Russian billionaire who was once close to President Vladimir Putin, but is now his most avowed critic and enemy.

From his base in London he runs a vocal and visceral campaign against Putin's Kremlin.

Mr Berezovsky was also the closest friend and benefactor of a certain Alexander Litvinenko.

On the very day that Andrei Lugovoi is accused of poisoning Litvinenko at the millennium hotel in London, he also went to visit Boris Berezovsky at his Mayfair office.

The subject of their meeting? A contract for Mr Lugovoi to protect the billionaire's daughter.

Andrei Lugovoi is, in other words, a man who was well trusted by both Mr Berezovsky and Alexander Litvinenko.

Indeed Boris Berezovsky told British police that when he first heard that Lugovoi was suspected of Litvinenko's murder, he did not believe it.

There seems little doubt that British police have compelling evidence pointing the finger directly at Andrei Lugovoi.

Although it has not been made public, it is well known that the most crucial evidence is the trail of radioactive Polonium 210 that seems to have followed Mr Lugovoi across Europe and around London.

It was even found on the seat he used while watching an Arsenal football match at the Emirates Stadium in London.

Each time I have met Andrei Lugovoi I have asked him to explain the trail of Polonium. He has never been able to do so.

But the one thing he has repeated insistently is that he had no motive to kill Litvinenko.

"Why would he kill someone he was hoping to do business with? Why would he jeopardize his business operations that stretch from Moscow to London, to Tel Aviv?" It is a good question, and one I have no answer to.

Another is how someone like Lugovoi could have got hold of Polonium 210. Even in Russia, it is not something you can get on the black market. Polonium is extremely rare, very expensive and very difficult to handle.

In Moscow conspiracy theories abound about what really happened to Alexander Litvinenko.

One of the latest, and most compelling goes something like this; Lugovoi and Litvinenko were working for the British secret service.

At some point last year Andrei Lugovoi got caught and turned by Russia secret service agents. They then forced him to betray and ultimately to kill his friend.

It is pretty far fetched, but then so is everything about the Litvinenko case.

While the evidence may point towards Lugovoi as the killer, it seems highly improbable that he acted alone.

Only one thing seems fairly certain, that we will never find out who really ordered the killing of Alexander Litvinenko.

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 26 May, 2007 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/05/26 10:33:54 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

[WhistlingJack]

Litvinenko Wife Rejects MI6 Claim

Litvinenko wife rejects MI6 claim



The widow of Alexander Litvinenko has dismissed claims that British secret services were involved in his death.

Marina Litvinenko said on the BBC's Sunday AM that accusations made by Andrei Lugovoi, suspected by Britain of poisoning her husband, were "nonsense".

She also called on the G8 to support the UK's request to get Mr Lugovoi extradited from Russia to face trial.

Mr Lugovoi says he is being used as a scapegoat and Moscow says efforts to extradite him are harming relations.

Mr Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, died in November 2006 after exposure to the radioactive isotope polonium-210.

Polonium-210 was found in a string of places that Mr Lugovoi visited in London, but he said he was a witness, not a suspect in the case.

Last week, at a Moscow news conference, he said the poisoning could not have happened without some involvement from MI6. He said he had evidence to support his claim, but gave no details.

Speaking on BBC One's The Politics Show Mrs Litvinenko said the claims were "incredible and nonsense".

She urged the G8 nations, who are due to meet in Germany next week, to back Britain's bid to get Mr Lugovoi extradited so he can face trial.

Russia's constitution forbids it from extraditing its own citizens, but she said her husband's case was different from anything that had happened before so the rule should be reconsidered.

"Nobody could be happy with this," she says. "I am absolutely sure what happened last November was like an act of terrorism against British citizens here in England."

Mr Lugovoi also said MI6 had recruited Mr Litvinenko and had tried to recruit him, to collect information on Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mrs Litvinenko denied this.

The north London home where the family had lived is still polluted with polonium and she has no idea when she and the couple's 13-year-old son Anatoly can return.

She said no polonium had been found in her son's body but some had been found in hers, however it is still unclear how harmful it could be.

She said the situation was still painful for her but she did feel safe in the UK.

"With everyone around me, Scotland Yard, I just feel safe with all this," she said.

The case is creating a diplomatic storm, with Russia accusing Britain of using it as part of a political campaign.

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the UK's efforts to extradite Mr Lugovoi were harming relations between the two countries.

The Foreign Office has rejected Mr Lugovoi's claims and insist the murder is a "very serious criminal matter which put hundreds of British citizens and visitors to the capital at risk".

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/06/03 10:49:20 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

[WhistlingJack]

Russia opens Litvinenko spy probe

Russia has launched a spying case in connection with statements made by the man the UK accuses of killing former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

The Federal Security Service is investigating claims by Andrei Lugovoi but has not named any suspects.

He claimed Mr Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London 2006, and businessman Boris Berezovsky had contacts with the UK secret service.

The UK embassy in Moscow said it was a criminal not intelligence matter.

The statement by the FSB said: "After checking the statement of Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi, on the 14 June the investigative department of the FSB, with the agreement of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, opened a criminal case on espionage charges."

The press service of the FSB said this was "not against Lugovoi" and that he as a Russian citizen had simply made a statement to the FSB as was his right.

When asked if the criminal case involved people currently in Russia or overseas, the spokesman said that was "secret information".

Meanwhile a spokesman for the British Embassy in Moscow said: "The Litvinenko affair is a criminal matter and not an issue of intelligence.

"A British citizen was killed in London, and UK citizens and visitors were put at risk. We are seeking and expect full cooperation from the Russian authorities in bringing the perpetrator to face British justice."

Diplomatic relations between London and Moscow have been strained by the case.

Mr Litvinenko died aged 43 after being exposed to the radioactive isotope polonium-210. The incident sparked a major public health scare as a raft of London buildings visited by the former agent were checked for radiation levels.

In May, Mr Lugovoi claimed that both Mr Litvinenko and Mr Berezovsky, who is exiled in the UK and an opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin's government, had contacts with the British foreign intelligence agency MI6.

Previously Russia has said it would refuse any extradition request for Mr Lugovoi.

The UK's director of public prosecutions has recommended Mr Lugovoi be tried for murder by "deliberate poisoning" and a formal extradition request has been submitted to the authorities in Moscow.

The request has been made under the 1957 Council of Europe European Convention on Extradition, of which Russia is a signatory. However, Russia does have the right, under Article 6, to refuse to extradite one of its nationals.

On Thursday, Russian prosecutor-general Yuri Chayka was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying: "Extradition is out of the question, because it contradicts our constitution."

Mr Putin previously described the request as "foolish".

Mr Litvinenko's widow, Marina, has dismissed Mr Lugovoi's claims that British secret services had a part in the death.

She said her husband's case was different from anything that had happened before and Russia should reconsider its law over extraditions.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/06/15 09:38:39 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Moscow says it has MI6 spy

RUSSIAN officials announced yesterday that a criminal investigation had been opened into allegations by a former tax police officer that he was recruited as an informant by MI6 with the help of Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB agent who died of polonium poisoning in London last year.

Vyacheslav Zharko is said to have turned himself in to the FSB, the successor to the KGB, 10 days ago and confessed to having worked for British intelligence since 2002. He claims that he was introduced to MI6 officers by Litvinenko during a trip to London in that year.

Zharko said he met his British handlers regularly in Turkey, Finland and Cyprus and supplied them with analytical reports on Russia's economy and politics. In return, he claims, he was paid about 60,000. He estimates that MI6 spent an additional 150,000 on expenses. 'I needed money so when Litvinenko told me that I could earn easy cash by collaborating with British intelligence I agreed,' Zharko, 36, told The Sunday Times in his first interview with a western newspaper. 'I saw myself as a consultant. I began to worry after Litvinenko's death because I feared I'd be sucked into something too dangerous. That's when I turned myself in.' The FSB, which has investigated Zharko, backs his claims but will not prosecute him for espionage, saying that he did not reveal any state secrets and had come forward voluntarily. His testimony comes a month after Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer named by the Crown Prosecution Service as the prime suspect in the death of Litvinenko, accused MI6 of trying to recruit him.

Russia has refused to extradite Lugovoi, who met Litvinenko on the day he was poisoned, to face trial in Britain and the Kremlin has angrily rejected accusations that it was behind the murder. Like Zharko, Lugovoi, who has protested his innocence, claims British intelligence sought to recruit him with Litvinenko's help.

The fallout over Litvinenko's death, which also left dozens of people contaminated with polonium 210, together with the subsequent row over Lugovoi, has plunged relations between Britain and Russia to their lowest point since the end of the cold war.

The dispute has also provoked a propaganda battle between MI6 and the FSB, two former foes that, officially at least, are partners in the fight on terrorism. British investigators are believed to suspect that Litvinenko, a former FSB officer who fled to Britain and was granted asylum, and who became a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, was killed by his former employer.

The FSB rejects the claim and is now hitting back, using Zharko's testimony to highlight allegations of secret MI6 operations in Russia. 'For months we've been accused of killing Litvinenko,' said an FSB source. 'The Brits have been waging an information war against us and now we are responding in kind. We have gone public with Zharko's story because it proves that Britain is actively spying against Russia and that Litvinenko was in cahoots with MI6.' Zharko claimed he had first met Litvinenko through Boris Berezovsky, the exiled Russian tycoon and opponent of Putin.

Berezovsky has been granted asylum in Britain. A former tax police officer in St Petersburg, Zharko had turned to Berezovsky for help in 2000 when an investigation he had led into a rival tycoon was threatened for political reasons. According to Zharko, Berezovsky who at the time had fallen out with the tycoon under investigation used his influence to keep the investigation open.

In 2002 Zharko left the tax police but stayed in touch with Berezovsky who by then had fled to Britain after falling out with Putin. It was during a trip to London five years ago that the billionaire, who according to Zharko knew him under the false name of Vladislav Petrov, put him in touch with Litvinenko. In turn, Litvinenko introduced Zharko to several British 'friends', who claimed to be business consultants but who later revealed themselves as MI6 officers and told him they were interested in recruiting him as an informant. 'They agreed to pay me 2,000 [1,355] a month,' Zharko said. 'I was told I shouldn't travel to London any more because Berezovsky's entourage was closely watched by Russian intelligence. I was supplied with a mobile phone I was to use to make contact with them, but only outside Russia. 'Litvinenko led them to believe that I'd worked in Russian intelligence so they thought I was a good catch.' According to Zharko, during his years of secret work for MI6 he had several meetings in the West with a total of four undercover British handlers. He talked fondly about one of the MI6 agents. 'We spent many nights drinking together and he once told me how he had photographed some secret documents in the toilets of a Moscow restaurant,' he said. Zharko said that at first his British handlers had been interested in information on several Russian companies. Then they asked him to compile a series of analytical reports on the political situation in Ukraine in the run-up to the country's Orange revolution and were also interested in information on any FSB operations against western non-governmental organisations working in Russia.

Zharko claims he supplied his case officers with information he compiled only from open sources. His final meeting with his handlers took place last November in Istanbul, a few days after Litvinenko's death, he said. He last spoke to them on the phone in June.

It is not the first time the FSB has publicly claimed to have exposed an MI6 operation. Last year it leaked footage of four diplomats posted at the embassy, allegedly downloading secret data from a transmitter concealed in a fake rock left in a Moscow park.

Relations between the two countries have been steadily worsening since. For months members of a pro-Kremlin youth group harassed Sir Anthony Brenton, the British ambassador in Moscow, after he attended an opposition gathering. Last week Brenton issued an angry public denial after a Russian paper claimed that asylum could be bought in Britain. 'We are in the middle of an information battle,' said a British diplomat who was based in Moscow. 'Relations were hard enough before the Litvinenko case. They've since taken a sharp turn for the worst. Expect more salvos to be fired.'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 042351.ece

 

[WhistlingJack]

Barman Describes Tea Thought to Have Killed Litvinenko

London barman describes tea thought to have killed Litvinenko

Sun Jul 15, 2007 12:19PM BST

LONDON (Reuters) - A London hotel barman has described throwing away the remains of the tea believed to have killed former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died last year from radioactive polonium poisoning, a newspaper said on Sunday.

"When I poured the remains of the teapot into the sink, the tea looked more yellow than usual and was thicker -- it looked gooey," the Sunday Telegraph quoted barman Norberto Andrade as saying in what it called the first account by someone present.

"I scooped it out of the sink and threw it into the bin. I was so lucky I didn't put my fingers into my mouth or scratch my eye as I could have got the poison inside me."

Britain accuses former Russian state security agent Andre Lugovoy of poisoning Litvinenko with polonium at the Millennium Hotel last November and has threatened punitive steps following Moscow's refusal to extradite him.

Media have reported Litvinenko was poisoned with tea. Andrade said he thought the polonium had been sprayed into the teapot.

"There was contamination found on the picture above where Mr Litvinenko was sitting and all over the table, chair and floor so it must have been a spray," the paper quoted him as saying.

Police were not immediately available to comment on the report.

Britain and Russia appear set for confrontation over Litvinenko's murder with London saying it is reviewing cooperation across a range of issues after Moscow's "unacceptable" refusal to extradite Lugovoy. It could even expel diplomats, a move that could prompt swift retaliation.

Lugovoy denies the accusation and counters he thinks British secret services may be involved in the murder.

Interviewed by BBC Television on Sunday, Britain's new Foreign Secretary David Miliband refused to be drawn on what moves London might now be planning.

"A very serious crime was committed on the streets of London, " he said.

"We have a judicial process that must be seen through and I don't want to say anything more about that at the moment other than that we are considering seriously all of our options."

Alex Goldfarb, who co-authored a book about the case with Litvinenko's widow, said the appearance of the interview was significant because British authorities had earlier told witnesses to keep quiet.

"I think this (the interview) has been given the okay by the police and the crown prosecution service because they had been telling witnesses to keep their mouths shut," he told Reuters.

"This is significant because it means the police and prosecutors have given up hope of having a trial. This witness has information that would have been useful at a trial."

(Additional reporting by Christian Lowe in Moscow)

© Reuters 2007.