Alexander Litvinenko
Encyclopedia
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (30 August 1962 (4 December 1962 by father's account), – 23 November 2006) was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB
and its Russia
n successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB).
In November 1998, Litvinenko and several other FSB officers publicly accused their superiors of ordering the assassination of Russian tycoon and oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko was arrested the following March on charges of exceeding his authority at work. He was acquitted in November 1999 but re-arrested before the charges were again dismissed in 2000. He fled with his family to London
and was granted asylum in the United Kingdom
, where he became a journalist
and writer
.
During his time in London Litvinenko authored two books, Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within
and Lubyanka Criminal Group
, where he accused Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings
and other terrorism acts in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin
to power. He also accused Putin of ordering the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya
.
On 1 November 2006 Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised in what was established as a case of poisoning by radioactive polonium-210
and that resulted in his death on 23 November. The events leading up to his poisoning and death are a matter of controversy, spawning numerous theories relating to his poisoning and death. The British
investigation into his death resulted in a failed request to Russia for the extradition
of Andrey Lugovoy whom they accused of Litvinenko's murder, contributing to the further cooling of Russia–United Kingdom relations
.
After Litvinenko's death his widow Marina pursued a vigorous campaign on behalf of her husband through Litvinenko Justice Foundation
. In October 2011, she won a right for a full public inquest
into Litvinenko's death to be conducted by a coroner
in London.
. After he graduated from a Nalchik
secondary school
in 1980 he was drafted into the Internal Troops
of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
as a Private. After a year of service, he matriculated in the Kirov Higher Command School in Vladikavkaz
. In 1981, Litvinenko married Nataliya, an accountant, with whom he had a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Sonia. This marriage would later end in divorce in 1994 and in the same year Litvinenko married Marina, a ballroom dancer and fitness instructor, with whom he had a son, Anatoly. After graduation in 1985, Litvinenko became a platoon
commander in the Dzerzhinsky Division of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was assigned to the 4th Company, where among his duties was the protection of valuable cargo while in transit. In 1986 he became an informant
when he was recruited by the MVD's KGB
counterintelligence section and 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.
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. In 1996, Litvinenko also served as a foot soldier during the Russian operation
in the Dagestan
i village of Pervomayskoye, where two of his comrades were killed by friendly fire
from the rocket artillery
. Although he was oft reported in western media as being a spy
, throughout his career he was not an 'intelligence agent' and did not deal with secrets beyond information on operations against organised criminal groups.
Litvinenko met Boris Berezovsky in 1994 when he took part in investigations into an assassination attempt on the oligarch
. He later began to moonlight for Berezovsky where he was responsible for the oligarch's security. The moonlighting by Litvinenko and other security services personnel was illegal, but the state
somewhat tolerated it in order to retain personnel who were at the time underpaid. Thus, Litvinenko's moonlighting for the controversial businessman was not investigated, but often investigations in Russia were selective and often targeted only at those who had stepped out of line.
In 1997, Litvinenko was promoted to the FSB Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups, with the title of senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section. According to Dimitri Simes, the Directorate was viewed as much as a part of organised crime as it was of law enforcement.
groups, such as the Solntsevo gang
, which he detailed in a memorandum to Boris Yeltsin
. Berezovsky arranged a meeting for him with FSB Director Mikhail Barsukov
and Deputy Director of Internal affairs Ovchinnikov to discuss the alleged corruption problems, with no result, leading him to come to the conclusion that the entire system was corrupt.
In December 1997 he claimed he received an order to kill Berezovsky, but didn't inform his part-time employer until 20 March 1998. According to his widow, on 25 July 1998, the day on which Vladimir Putin
replaced Nikolay Kovalyov as the Director of the Federal Security Service, Berezovsky introduced Litvinenko to Putin, whom Berezovsky claimed he had helped to install into the Director's position. According to his widow, Litvinenko reported to Putin on corruption in the FSB, but Putin was unimpressed. According to Litvinenko, Putin was involved with a corrupt military general in the Russian army when Putin was a Deputy for Economic Affairs to the Mayor of St. Petersburg. Litvenenko was doing an investigation into the general and Uzbek drug barons and believed that Putin tried to stall the investigation in order to save his reputation.
On 13 November 1998 Berezovsky wrote an open letter
to Putin in Kommersant
, in which he accused Director of the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups Major-General Yevgeny Khokholkov and his deputies of ordering the oligarch's assassination. On 17 November 1998, Litvinenko and four other officed helped to install into the Director's position. According to his widow, Litvinenko reported to Putin on corruption in the FSB, but Putin was unimpressed. According to Litvinenko, Putin was involved with a corrupt military general in the Russian army when Putin was a Deputy for Economic Affairs to the Mayor of St. Petersburg. Litvenenko was doing an investigation into the general and Uzbek drug barons and believed that Putin tried to stall the investigation in order to save his reputation.
On 13 November 1998 Berezovsky wrote an open letter
to Putin in Kommersant
, in which he accused Director of the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups Major-General Yevgeny Khokholkov and his deputies of ordering the oligarch's assassination. On 17 November 1998, Litvinenko and four other officeoliticians and businesspeople. Critics have charged that the interview was a ruse developed by Berezovsky, and Jim Heintz of The Associated Press opined that although Berezovsky does not appear in the interview, he has an omnipresence in it, given that that officers worked for him, and the interview was taped by Dorenko, a Russian journalist who was an employee of the then-Berezovsky-owned ORT, and who was subsequently fired in 2000.
that he personally ordered the dismissal of Litvinenko, stating "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." Litvinenko also believed that Putin was behind his arrest. He said: "Putin had the power to decide whether to pass my file to the prosecutors or not. He always hated me. And there was a bonus for him: by throwing me to the wolves he distanced himself from Boris [Berezovsky] in the eyes of FSB's generals."
, but his application was denied. Henry Plater-Zyberk
opined that the denial of application may have been based upon on a possible American opinion that Litvinenko's knowledge was of little benefit and that he might create problems. 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 1 November 2000. Political asylum was granted on 14 May 2001, not because of his knowledge on intelligence matters, but rather on humanitarian grounds. While in London he became a journalist
for the separatist Chechenpress
and a controversial author
, and also joined Berezovsky in campaigning against Putin's government. In October 2006 he became a naturalised British citizen
with residence in Whitehaven.
, citing "diplomatic and intelligence sources," stated that Mr Litvinenko was paid about £2,000 per month by MI6 at the time of his murder. John Scarlett
, the head of MI6 (who was once based in Moscow), was allegedly personally involved in recruiting him. The Independent
stated that whilst cooperation of Litvinenko with MI6 will likely never be confirmed, a MI6 retainer for Litvinenko suggests systematic cooperation, because MI6 usually makes irregular payments to exiles in exchange for information.
According to Marina Litvinenko, her husband did not work in British secret agencies, but consulted them to combat Russian organized crime in Europe.
stated that he had warned in 2002 that an FSB unit was assigned to assassinate Litvinenko. In spite of this, Litvinenko often travelled overseas with no security arrangements, and freely mingled with the Russian community in the United Kingdom
, and often received journalists at his home. In January 2007, Polish newspaper Dziennik revealed that a target with a photo of Litvinenko on it was used for shooting practice by the Vityaz Training Centre in Balashikha
in October 2002. The centre run by Sergey Lyusyuk is not affiliated with the government, and trains bodyguard
s, debt collectors and private security forces, although in November 2006 the centre was used by the Vityaz
for a qualification examination due to their own centre being under renovation. The targets, which Lyusyuk says were bought in the Olympic Market, were also photographed when the chairman of the Federation Council of Russia
Sergei Mironov visited the centre and met Lyusyuk on 7 November 2006. When asked why the photographs of Mironov's visit were removed from the centre's website Lyusyuk stated "(t)hose Poles are up to something" and added that Mironov didn't see the targets and knew nothing about them.
's Center for the Study of Democracy, Litvinenko told her that he was planning to blackmail or sell sensitive information on a wide range of people, including oligarch
s, allegedly corrupt official and figures within the Kremlin hierarchy, in which he would extort £10,000 per instance to have him stop publication of alleged documents. Svetlichnaya noted that Litvinenko didn't have a steady income and was certain he could obtain the necessary files for this purpose. According to The Observer, Litvinenko's alleged threats and access to FSB materials might have turned him into an enemy of big business
and the Kremlin.
in Russia and given a three and a half year jail sentence.
, and would bombard his contacts with relating to his conspiracy theories. In a report for the Conflict Studies Research Centre
, Henry Plater-Zyberk
, a lecturer at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom and Russian politics expert, described Litvinenko as a one-man disinformation bureau, who was at first guided by Berezovsky but later in possible pursuit of attention for himself. Plater-Zyberk notes that Litvinenko made numerous accusations without presenting any evidence to give credence to his claims, and these claims which became increasingly outlandish were often accepted by the British media without question. According to Michael Mainville, Litvinenko knew the secret to a conspiracy theory is that they are based upon an absence of proof, and that the more outlandish the claim, the harder it is to disprove. This has led to some political analysts dismissing his claims as those of a fantasist.
that killed Prime Minister of Armenia
Vazgen Sargsyan and seven members of parliament, ostensibly to derail the peace process
which would have resolved the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, but he offered no evidence to support the accusation. The Russian embassy in Armenia
denied any such involvement, and described Litvinenko's accusation as an attempt to harm relations between Armenia and Russia
by people against the democratic reforms in Russia.
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.
network, and aired on Dateline, Litvinenko claimed 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: "[w]hen they tried to find [Abdul the Bloody and Abu Bakar] 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." This echoed similar claims made by Mikhail Trepashkin
. The leading role of an FSB
agent Khanpasha Terkibaev (the "Abu Bakar") was also described by Anna Politkovskaya
, Ivan Rybkin
and Alexander Khinshtein
. In the beginning of April 2003 Litvinenko gave "the Terkibaev file" to Sergei Yushenkov
when he visited London, who in turn passed it to Anna Politkovskaya
. A few days later Yushenkov was assassinated. Terkibaev was later killed in Chechnya. According to speaker of Russian State Duma Ivan Rybkin
, "The authorities failed to keep [the FSB agent] Terkibaev out of public view, and that is why he was killed. I know how angry people were, because they knew Terkibaev had authorization from presidential administration."
operation. He spoke in an interview before his death with Chechenpress
news agency, and said that because the hostage takers had previously been in FSB custody for committing terrorist attacks, it is inconceivable that they would have been released and still been able to carry out attacks independently. He said that they would only have been freed if they were of use to the FSB, and that even in the case that they were freed without being turned into FSB assets, they would be under a strict surveillance regime that would not have allowed them to carry out the Beslan attack unnoticed. Ella Kesayeva, co-chair of the group Voice of Beslan
, formalized Litvinenko's argument in a November 2008 article in Novaya Gazeta
, noting the large number of hostage takers who were in government custody not long before attacking the school, and coming to the same conclusion that Beslan was a false flag attack.
, Abdullah Öcalan
, Wadie Haddad
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
, George Hawi
who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou
from Cyprus, Sean Garland
from Ireland and many others." He says that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents in order to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR. Litvinenko said that "the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin".
, Litvinenko alleged that Ayman al-Zawahiri
, a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, was trained for half of a year by the FSB in Dagestan
in 1997 and called him "an old agent of the FSB". Litvinenko said that after this training, al-Zawahiri "was transferred to Afghanistan
, where he had never been before and where, following the recommendation of his Lubyanka chiefs, he at once ... penetrated the milieu of Osama bin Laden
and soon became his assistant in Al Qaeda." Former KGB officer and writer Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy
supported this claim and said that Litvinenko "was responsible for securing the secrecy of Al-Zawahiri's arrival in Russia; he was trained by FSB instructors in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, in 1996-1997.". He said: "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." According to FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko, al-Zawahiri was arrested by Russian authorities in Dagestan in December 1996 and released in May 1997.
When asked in an interview who he thought the originator of the 2005 bombings in London
was, Litvinenko responded saying "You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization, which has made terrorism the main tool of solving of political problems. It is the Russian special services."
On 1 September 2005, al-Zawahiri and Mohammad Sidique Khan
claimed responsibility for the attacks for Al Qaeda on a video tape which aired on al-Jazeera.
over the publication in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten
of editorial cartoons depicting the Islam
ic prophet
Muhammad
was orchestrated by the FSB to punish Denmark
for its refusal to extradite Chechen separatists
.
of ordering the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya
and stated that a former presidential candidate Irina Hakamada
warned Politkovskaya about threats to her life coming from the Russian president. Litvinenko advised Politkovskaya to escape from Russia immediately. Hakamada denied her involvement in passing any specific threats, and said that she warned Politkovskaya only in general terms more than a year ago. It remains unclear if Litvinenko referred to an earlier statement made by Boris Berezovsky who claimed that former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Boris Nemtsov
received a word from Hakamada that Putin threatened her and like-minded colleagues in person. According to Berezovsky, Putin uttered that Hakamada and her colleagues "will take in the head immediately, literally, not figuratively" if they "open the mouth" about the Russian apartment bombings
.
said to him "Don’t go to Italy, there are many KGB agents among the politicians. Romano Prodi is our man there", meaning Romano Prodi
, the Italian centre-left leader, former Prime Minister of Italy
and former President of the European Commission
. The conversation with Trofimov took place in 2000, after the Prodi-KGB scandal broke out in October 1999 due to information about Prodi provided by Vasili Mitrokhin
.
In April 2006, a British Member of the European Parliament
for London, Gerard Batten
of the United Kingdom Independence Party
(UKIP) demanded an inquiry into the allegations. 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". 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 repeated his statements about Prodi.
A report by the Conflict Studies Research Centre
of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom from May 2007 noted that Trofimov was never the head of the FSB, which did not oversee intelligence operations, had never worked in the intelligence directorate of the KGB
or its successor the SVR
, nor had he worked in the counterintelligence department of the intelligence services, nor had he ever worked in Italy, making it difficult to understand how Trofimov would have had knowledge about such a recruitment. Henry Plater-Zyberk
, the co-author of the report suggested that Trofimov was "conveniently dead", so "could neither confirm nor deny the story", and noted Litvinenko's history of making accusations without evidence to back them up.
, and Tariel Oniani
.
during his time at the FSB was personally involved in protecting
the drug trafficking from Afghanistan organized by Abdul Rashid Dostum
http://www.compromat.ru/main/fsb/litvinenkolpgg4.htm. In December 2003 Russian authorities confiscated over 4000 copies of the book.
Litvinenko 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.". He also said that "It was considered in our service that poison is an easier weapon than a pistol." He referred to a secret laboratory in Moscow
that still continues development of deadly poisons, according to him.
In an article written by Litvinenko in July 2006, and published online on Zakayev's Chechenpress
website, he claimed that Vladimir Putin
is a paedophile. Litvinenko also claimed that Anatoly Trofimov
and Artyom Borovik
knew of the alleged paedophilia. The claims have been called "wild", and "sensational and unsubstantiated" in the British media. Litvinenko made the allegation after Putin kissed a boy on his belly while stopping to chat with some tourists during a walk in the Kremlin grounds on 28 June 2006. The incident was recalled in a webcast
organised by the BBC
and Yandex
, in which over 11,000 people asked Putin to explain the act, to which he responded, "He seemed very independent and serious... I wanted to cuddle him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture. He seemed so nice...There is nothing behind it." It has been suggested that the incident was a "clumsy attempt" to soften Putin's image in the lead-up the 32nd G8 Summit
which was held in Saint Petersburg
in July 2006.
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was 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 both denied any wrongdoing, a leaked US diplomatic cable
revealed that Kovtun had left Polonium traces in the house and car he had used in Hamburg http://213.251.145.96/cable/2006/12/06HAMBURG85.html. 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-Acting Prime minister Yegor Gaidar
(who also suffered from a mysterious illness in November 2006). Later, he had lunch at Itsu
, a sushi
restaurant in Piccadilly in London, with an Italian acquaintance and nuclear waste expert, 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.
. Litvinenko's conversion to Sunni Islam and the related wish for Muslim funeral rites were recognized by his father. 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 Sunni 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 "like 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."
The ceremony was followed by a private memorial at which the ensemble Tonus Peregrinus
sang sacred music by Russian composers Igor Stravinsky
, Sergei Rachmaninov, Victor Kalinnikov, and three works by British composer Antony Pitts
.
stated that inquiries into the circumstances of how Litvinenko became ill would continue.
On 24 November a posthumous statement was released, in which Litvinenko directly accused Vladimir Putin of poisoning him. Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb, who is also the chairman of Boris Berezovsky's Civil Liberties Fund
, claimed 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.
Putin disputed the authenticity of this note while attending a Russia-EU summit in Helsinki
and claimed it was being used for political purposes. William Dunkerley, in a briefing from May 2007 for a round table which discussed Litvinenko's case and the way it was handled by the Russian
and Western media, called into question the authenticity of the statement, noting that the statement did not read like a statement made on one's deathbed and was typed in English, a language which Litvinenko was far from proficient in, with the signature and date handwritten. Goldfarb later stated that Litvinenko instructed him to write a note "in good English" in which Putin was to be accused of his poisoning. Goldfarb also stated that he read the note to Litvinenko in English and Russian, to which he claims Litvinenko agreed "with every word of it" and signed it.
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
(West side) 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.
According to Mary Dejevsky, the chief editorial writer of The Independent
, the view that the British public had of Litvinenko's illness and death was essentially dictated by Berezovsky, who funded an expertly conducted publicity campaign.
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.
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.
On 2 October 2011, The Sunday Times published an article wherein the chief prosecutor who investigated the murder of Litvinenko, Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, publicly spoke of his suspicion that the murder was a "state directed execution" carried out by Russia. Until that time, British public officials had stopped short of directly accusing Russia of involvement in the poisoning. "It had all the hallmarks of a state directed execution, committed on the streets of London by a foreign government," Macdonald added .
participated." This involvement of Berezovsky was alleged by numerous Russian television shows. Kremlin supporters saw it as a conspiracy to smear Russian government's reputation by engineering a spectacular murder of a Russian dissident abroad.
After Litvinenko's death, traces of polonium-210
were found in an office of Berezovsky. Litvinenko had visited Berezovsky's office as well as many other places in the hours after his poisoning. The British Health Protection Agency made extensive efforts to ensure that locations Litvinenko visited and anyone who had contact with Litvinenko after his poisoning, were not at risk.
Russian prosecutors were not allowed to investigate the office. Russian authorities have also been unable to question Berezovsky. The Foreign Ministry complained that Britain was obstructing its attempt to send prosecutors to London to interview more than 100 people, including Berezovsky.
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. However the British ambassador to Russia, Anne Pringle
, claimed that London has already submitted sufficient evidence to extradite him to Britain.
of St. Pancras announced that he will hold a full public inquest into Litvinenko's death, which will include the examination of all existing theories of the murder, including possible complicity of Russian government.Litvinenko coroner to examine if Russian state behind killing The Daily Telegraph
13 Oct 2011.
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
and its Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB).
In November 1998, Litvinenko and several other FSB officers publicly accused their superiors of ordering the assassination of Russian tycoon and oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko was arrested the following March on charges of exceeding his authority at work. He was acquitted in November 1999 but re-arrested before the charges were again dismissed in 2000. He fled with his family to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and was granted asylum in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, where he became a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
During his time in London Litvinenko authored two books, Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within
Blowing up Russia: Terror from within
Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within is a book written by Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky. The authors alleged that the Russian apartment bombings and other September 1999 terrorist acts were committed by the Federal Security Service...
and Lubyanka Criminal Group
Lubyanka Criminal Group
Lubyanka Criminal Group is a book by Alexander Litvinenko about the alleged transformation of the Russian Security Services into a criminal and terrorist organization.Lubyanka is known as KGB headquarters...
, where he accused Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings
Russian apartment bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 people and injuring 651. The explosions occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and...
and other terrorism acts in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
to power. He also accused Putin of ordering the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin...
.
On 1 November 2006 Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised in what was established as a case of poisoning by radioactive polonium-210
Polonium
Polonium is a chemical element with the symbol Po and atomic number 84, discovered in 1898 by Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie. A rare and highly radioactive element, polonium is chemically similar to bismuth and tellurium, and it occurs in uranium ores. Polonium has been studied for...
and that resulted in his death on 23 November. The events leading up to his poisoning and death are a matter of controversy, spawning numerous theories relating to his poisoning and death. The British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
investigation into his death resulted in a failed request to Russia for the extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
of Andrey Lugovoy whom they accused of Litvinenko's murder, contributing to the further cooling of Russia–United Kingdom relations
Russia–United Kingdom relations
Russia–United Kingdom relations is the bilateral relationship between the countries of Russia and the United Kingdom and their predecessor states. Spanning nearly five centuries, it has often switched from a state of alliance to rivalry...
.
After Litvinenko's death his widow Marina pursued a vigorous campaign on behalf of her husband through Litvinenko Justice Foundation
Litvinenko Justice Foundation
Litvinenko Justice Foundation is a non-profit organization established todemand justice for Alexander Litvinenko who was allegedly poisoned in Great Britain on November 1, 2006....
. In October 2011, she won a right for a full public inquest
Inquest
Inquests in England and Wales are held into sudden and unexplained deaths and also into the circumstances of discovery of a certain class of valuable artefacts known as "treasure trove"...
into Litvinenko's death to be conducted by a coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
in London.
Early life and career
Alexander Litvinenko was born in the Russian city of VoronezhVoronezh
Voronezh is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, away from where it flows into the Don. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway , as well as the center of the Don Highway...
. After he graduated from a Nalchik
Nalchik
Nalchik is the capital city of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Russia, situated at an altitude of in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains; about northwest of Beslan in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania. It covers an area of...
secondary school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
in 1980 he was drafted into the Internal Troops
Internal Troops
The Internal Troops, full name Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs ; alternatively translated as "Interior " is a paramilitary gendarmerie-like force in the now-defunct Soviet Union and its successor countries, particularly, in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan...
of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs
The Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del is the interior ministry of Russia. Its predecessor was founded in 1802 by Alexander I in Imperial Russia...
as a Private. After a year of service, he matriculated in the Kirov Higher Command School in Vladikavkaz
Vladikavkaz
-Notable structures:In Vladikavkaz, there is a guyed TV mast, tall, built in 1961, which has six crossbars with gangways in two levels running from the mast structure to the guys.-Twin towns/sister cities:...
. In 1981, Litvinenko married Nataliya, an accountant, with whom he had a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Sonia. This marriage would later end in divorce in 1994 and in the same year Litvinenko married Marina, a ballroom dancer and fitness instructor, with whom he had a son, Anatoly. After graduation in 1985, Litvinenko became a platoon
Platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...
commander in the Dzerzhinsky Division of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was assigned to the 4th Company, where among his duties was the protection of valuable cargo while in transit. In 1986 he became an informant
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
when he was recruited by the MVD's KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
counterintelligence section and 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
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
Military Counter Intelligence School, he became an operational officer and served in KGB military counterintelligence until 1991.
Career in Russian security services
In 1991, he was promoted to the Central Staff of the Federal Counterintelligence Service, specialising in counter-terroristCounter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
activities and infiltration of organised crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
. 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
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...
Litvinenko planted several FSB agents in Chechnya. In 1996, Litvinenko also served as a foot soldier during the Russian operation
Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye hostage crisis
Rebel fighters led by Raduyev then entered the town itself, where they took 2,000 to 3,400hostages and held them at a local hospital, a nearby high-rise building and a bridge...
in the Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
i village of Pervomayskoye, where two of his comrades were killed by friendly fire
Friendly fire
Friendly fire is inadvertent firing towards one's own or otherwise friendly forces while attempting to engage enemy forces, particularly where this results in injury or death. A death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered friendly fire...
from the rocket artillery
Rocket artillery
Rocket artillery is a type of artillery equipped with rocket launchers instead of conventional guns or mortars.Types of rocket artillery pieces include multiple rocket launchers.-History:...
. Although he was oft reported in western media as being a spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
, throughout his career he was not an 'intelligence agent' and did not deal with secrets beyond information on operations against organised criminal groups.
Litvinenko met Boris Berezovsky in 1994 when he took part in investigations into an assassination attempt on the oligarch
Business oligarch
Business oligarch is a near-synonym of the term "business magnate", borrowed by the English speaking and western media from post-Soviet parlance to describe the huge, fast-acquired wealth of some businessmen of the former Soviet republics during the privatization in Russia and other post-Soviet...
. He later began to moonlight for Berezovsky where he was responsible for the oligarch's security. The moonlighting by Litvinenko and other security services personnel was illegal, but the state
Government of Russia
The Government of the Russian Federation exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister , the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers...
somewhat tolerated it in order to retain personnel who were at the time underpaid. Thus, Litvinenko's moonlighting for the controversial businessman was not investigated, but often investigations in Russia were selective and often targeted only at those who had stepped out of line.
In 1997, Litvinenko was promoted to the FSB Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups, with the title of senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section. According to Dimitri Simes, the Directorate was viewed as much as a part of organised crime as it was of law enforcement.
Claims against FSB leadership
According to his widow Marina, during Litvinenko's tenure of employment in the FSB he discovered numerous connections between top brass of Russian law enforcement agencies and Russian mafiaRussian Mafia
The Russian Mafia is a name applied to organized crime syndicates in Russia and Ukraine. The mafia in various countries take the name of the country, as for example the Ukrainian mafia....
groups, such as the Solntsevo gang
Solntsevskaya bratva
The Solntsevskaya Bratva is a powerful organized crime organization from Moscow, Russia. It is named after the Solntsevo neighborhood in the city. It is considered to be one the most dangerous criminal organizations in the entire world.-History:...
, which he detailed in a memorandum to Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
. Berezovsky arranged a meeting for him with FSB Director Mikhail Barsukov
Mikhail Barsukov
Mikhail Ivanovich Barsukov is a former Russian intelligence and government official...
and Deputy Director of Internal affairs Ovchinnikov to discuss the alleged corruption problems, with no result, leading him to come to the conclusion that the entire system was corrupt.
In December 1997 he claimed he received an order to kill Berezovsky, but didn't inform his part-time employer until 20 March 1998. According to his widow, on 25 July 1998, the day on which Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
replaced Nikolay Kovalyov as the Director of the Federal Security Service, Berezovsky introduced Litvinenko to Putin, whom Berezovsky claimed he had helped to install into the Director's position. According to his widow, Litvinenko reported to Putin on corruption in the FSB, but Putin was unimpressed. According to Litvinenko, Putin was involved with a corrupt military general in the Russian army when Putin was a Deputy for Economic Affairs to the Mayor of St. Petersburg. Litvenenko was doing an investigation into the general and Uzbek drug barons and believed that Putin tried to stall the investigation in order to save his reputation.
On 13 November 1998 Berezovsky wrote an open letter
Open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
to Putin in Kommersant
Kommersant
Kommersant is a commerce-oriented newspaper published in Russia. , the circulation was 131,000.- History :The newspaper was initially published in 1909, and it was closed down following the Bolshevik seizure of power and the introduction of censorship in 1917.In 1989, with the onset of press...
, in which he accused Director of the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups Major-General Yevgeny Khokholkov and his deputies of ordering the oligarch's assassination. On 17 November 1998, Litvinenko and four other officed helped to install into the Director's position. According to his widow, Litvinenko reported to Putin on corruption in the FSB, but Putin was unimpressed. According to Litvinenko, Putin was involved with a corrupt military general in the Russian army when Putin was a Deputy for Economic Affairs to the Mayor of St. Petersburg. Litvenenko was doing an investigation into the general and Uzbek drug barons and believed that Putin tried to stall the investigation in order to save his reputation.
On 13 November 1998 Berezovsky wrote an open letter
Open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
to Putin in Kommersant
Kommersant
Kommersant is a commerce-oriented newspaper published in Russia. , the circulation was 131,000.- History :The newspaper was initially published in 1909, and it was closed down following the Bolshevik seizure of power and the introduction of censorship in 1917.In 1989, with the onset of press...
, in which he accused Director of the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups Major-General Yevgeny Khokholkov and his deputies of ordering the oligarch's assassination. On 17 November 1998, Litvinenko and four other officeoliticians and businesspeople. Critics have charged that the interview was a ruse developed by Berezovsky, and Jim Heintz of The Associated Press opined that although Berezovsky does not appear in the interview, he has an omnipresence in it, given that that officers worked for him, and the interview was taped by Dorenko, a Russian journalist who was an employee of the then-Berezovsky-owned ORT, and who was subsequently fired in 2000.
Dismissal from the FSB
After holding the press conference, Litvinenko was dismissed from the FSB. Putin said later in interview to Yelena TregubovaYelena Tregubova
Yelena Viktorovna Tregubova is a Russian journalist, a critic of the president Vladimir Putin and his environment.- Biography :Tregubova studied journalism at Moscow State University in the 1990s...
that he personally ordered the dismissal of Litvinenko, stating "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." Litvinenko also believed that Putin was behind his arrest. He said: "Putin had the power to decide whether to pass my file to the prosecutors or not. He always hated me. And there was a bonus for him: by throwing me to the wolves he distanced himself from Boris [Berezovsky] in the eyes of FSB's generals."
Arrest
He was 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. He was released a month later after signing a written undertaking not to leave the country.Flight from Russia and asylum in the United Kingdom
In October 2000, in violation of an order not to leave Moscow, Litvinenko and his family travelled to Turkey, possibly via Ukraine. While in Turkey, Litvinenko applied for asylum at the United States Embassy in AnkaraAnkara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
, but his application was denied. Henry Plater-Zyberk
Henry Plater-Zyberk
Henry Plater-Zyberk is senior analyst of the Conflict Studies Research Centre at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Sovietologist and a specialist in Russia and Central Asia. He has also served as an analyst of the British Foreign Office...
opined that the denial of application may have been based upon on a possible American opinion that Litvinenko's knowledge was of little benefit and that he might create problems. With the help of Alexander Goldfarb, Litvinenko bought air tickets for the Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
-London-Moscow flight, and asked for political asylum at Heathrow Airport during the transit stop on 1 November 2000. Political asylum was granted on 14 May 2001, not because of his knowledge on intelligence matters, but rather on humanitarian grounds. While in London he became a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
for the separatist Chechenpress
Chechenpress
State Information Agency Chechenpress is the news agency of the Chechen separatists who proclaim themselves to be the representatives of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria...
and a controversial author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, and also joined Berezovsky in campaigning against Putin's government. In October 2006 he became a naturalised British citizen
British nationality law
British nationality law is the law of the United Kingdom that concerns citizenship and other categories of British nationality. The law is complex because of the United Kingdom's former status as an imperial power.-History:...
with residence in Whitehaven.
Alleged career in MI6
On 27 October 2007, the Daily MailDaily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, citing "diplomatic and intelligence sources," stated that Mr Litvinenko was paid about £2,000 per month by MI6 at the time of his murder. John Scarlett
John Scarlett
Sir John McLeod Scarlett, KCMG, OBE was Director General of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 2004 to 2009...
, the head of MI6 (who was once based in Moscow), was allegedly personally involved in recruiting him. The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
stated that whilst cooperation of Litvinenko with MI6 will likely never be confirmed, a MI6 retainer for Litvinenko suggests systematic cooperation, because MI6 usually makes irregular payments to exiles in exchange for information.
According to Marina Litvinenko, her husband did not work in British secret agencies, but consulted them to combat Russian organized crime in Europe.
Alleged threats against Litvinenko
Former FSB officer Mikhail TrepashkinMikhail Trepashkin
Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin, is a Moscow attorney and former FSB colonel who was invited by MP Sergei Kovalev to assist in an independent inquiry of the Russian apartment bombings in September 1999 – the atrocities that followed Dagestan war and were one of the triggers for the Second Chechen...
stated that he had warned in 2002 that an FSB unit was assigned to assassinate Litvinenko. In spite of this, Litvinenko often travelled overseas with no security arrangements, and freely mingled with the Russian community in the United Kingdom
Russians in the United Kingdom
-Settlement and population numbers:The 2001 UK Census recorded 15,160 Russian-born residents. Estimates published by the Office for National Statistics suggest that the resident Russian-born population of the UK was 32,000 in 2009....
, and often received journalists at his home. In January 2007, Polish newspaper Dziennik revealed that a target with a photo of Litvinenko on it was used for shooting practice by the Vityaz Training Centre in Balashikha
Balashikha
Balashikha is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Pekhorka River east of Moscow. It is known for its unique river and waterway system. The Pekhorka River system covers an area of from north to south and from east to west, and many small lakes and ponds were created by damming to...
in October 2002. The centre run by Sergey Lyusyuk is not affiliated with the government, and trains bodyguard
Bodyguard
A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...
s, debt collectors and private security forces, although in November 2006 the centre was used by the Vityaz
Vityaz (MVD)
Vityaz was a Russian Spetsnaz unit of the MVD, a unit in the Independent Operative Purpose Division of the Internal Troops.Vityaz was assigned specifically to counter-terrorism duties. Vityaz unit regularly conducts counter-terrorism patrols in Chechnya and along the Caucasus border...
for a qualification examination due to their own centre being under renovation. The targets, which Lyusyuk says were bought in the Olympic Market, were also photographed when the chairman of the Federation Council of Russia
Federation Council of Russia
Federation Council of Russia ) is the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , according to the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation...
Sergei Mironov visited the centre and met Lyusyuk on 7 November 2006. When asked why the photographs of Mironov's visit were removed from the centre's website Lyusyuk stated "(t)hose Poles are up to something" and added that Mironov didn't see the targets and knew nothing about them.
Alleged blackmail activities
According to Julia Svetlichnaya, a Russian doctoral candidate at the University of WestminsterUniversity of Westminster
The University of Westminster is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its origins go back to the foundation of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in 1838, and it was awarded university status in 1992.The university's headquarters and original campus are based on Regent...
's Center for the Study of Democracy, Litvinenko told her that he was planning to blackmail or sell sensitive information on a wide range of people, including oligarch
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
s, allegedly corrupt official and figures within the Kremlin hierarchy, in which he would extort £10,000 per instance to have him stop publication of alleged documents. Svetlichnaya noted that Litvinenko didn't have a steady income and was certain he could obtain the necessary files for this purpose. According to The Observer, Litvinenko's alleged threats and access to FSB materials might have turned him into an enemy of big business
Big Business
Big business is a term used to describe large corporations, in either an individual or collective sense. The term first came into use in a symbolic sense subsequent to the American Civil War, particularly after 1880, in connection with the combination movement that began in American business at...
and the Kremlin.
Conviction in Russia
In 2002 he was convicted in absentiaIn absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
in Russia and given a three and a half year jail sentence.
Allegations
Litvinenko told anyone who would listen about his theories relating to the power structures in RussiaGovernment of Russia
The Government of the Russian Federation exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister , the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers...
, and would bombard his contacts with relating to his conspiracy theories. In a report for the Conflict Studies Research Centre
Conflict Studies Research Centre
The Conflict Studies Research Centre, or CSRC, was a component of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, based at Shrivenham. It specialised in potential causes of conflict in a wide area ranging from the Baltics to Central Asia....
, Henry Plater-Zyberk
Henry Plater-Zyberk
Henry Plater-Zyberk is senior analyst of the Conflict Studies Research Centre at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Sovietologist and a specialist in Russia and Central Asia. He has also served as an analyst of the British Foreign Office...
, a lecturer at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom and Russian politics expert, described Litvinenko as a one-man disinformation bureau, who was at first guided by Berezovsky but later in possible pursuit of attention for himself. Plater-Zyberk notes that Litvinenko made numerous accusations without presenting any evidence to give credence to his claims, and these claims which became increasingly outlandish were often accepted by the British media without question. According to Michael Mainville, Litvinenko knew the secret to a conspiracy theory is that they are based upon an absence of proof, and that the more outlandish the claim, the harder it is to disprove. This has led to some political analysts dismissing his claims as those of a fantasist.
Armenian parliament shooting
Litvinenko accused the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General-Staff of the Russian armed forces had organised the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting1999 Armenian parliament shooting
The 1999 Armenian parliament shooting was an attack on the Armenian parliament in the capital Yerevan on October 27, 1999 at 5:15 p.m, by a group of armed men that killed the Prime Minister of Armenia and 7 other high ranking officials.-Shooting:...
that killed Prime Minister of Armenia
Prime Minister of Armenia
The Prime Minister of Armenia is the most senior minister within the Armenian government, and is required by the constitution to "oversee the Government's regular activities and coordinate the work of the Ministers." The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of Armenia, but can be removed by...
Vazgen Sargsyan and seven members of parliament, ostensibly to derail the peace process
Peace process
Peace process may refer to:* in general:** Peacebuilding** Conflict resolution* specifically:** Northern Ireland peace process, efforts from c.1993 to end "the Troubles"...
which would have resolved the Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
conflict, but he offered no evidence to support the accusation. The Russian embassy in Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
denied any such involvement, and described Litvinenko's accusation as an attempt to harm relations between Armenia and Russia
Armenia–Russia relations
Armenia–Russia relations are the bilateral relationship between Armenia and the Russian Federation. Diplomatic relations between modern-day Armenia and Russia were established on April 3, 1992, but Russia has been an important actor in Armenia since the early 19th century...
by people against the democratic reforms in Russia.
Russian apartment bombings
Litvinenko alleged that agents from the FSB coordinated the 1999 Russian apartment bombingsRussian apartment bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 people and injuring 651. The explosions occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and...
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
Sergei Yushenkov
Sergei Yushenkov was a liberal Russian politician well known for his uncompromising struggle for democracy, rapid free market economic reforms, and higher human rights standards in Russia...
, vice chairman of the Sergei Kovalev
Sergei Kovalev
Sergei Kovalev is a Russian human rights activist and politician and a former Soviet dissident and political prisoner.- Early career and arrest :...
commission created by the Russian Parliament to investigate the bombings.
Moscow theatre hostage crisis
In a 2003 interview with the Australian SBS TVSBS TV
SBS One is a national public television channel in Australia. Launched on 24 October 1980, it is the responsibility of SBS's television division, and is available nationally...
network, and aired on Dateline, Litvinenko claimed 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: "[w]hen they tried to find [Abdul the Bloody and Abu Bakar] 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." This echoed similar claims made by Mikhail Trepashkin
Mikhail Trepashkin
Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin, is a Moscow attorney and former FSB colonel who was invited by MP Sergei Kovalev to assist in an independent inquiry of the Russian apartment bombings in September 1999 – the atrocities that followed Dagestan war and were one of the triggers for the Second Chechen...
. The leading role of an FSB
FSB (Russia)
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet Committee of State Security . Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and...
agent Khanpasha Terkibaev (the "Abu Bakar") was also described by Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin...
, Ivan Rybkin
Ivan Rybkin
Ivan Petrovich Rybkin is a Russian politician; was Chairman of Russia's State Duma in 1994–96 and Secretary of the Security Council in 1996–98.-Early life:...
and Alexander Khinshtein
Alexander Khinshtein
Alexander Khinshtein is a Russian politician and journalist. He is a member of United Russia. He currently represents the 122nd elective district in the State Duma....
. In the beginning of April 2003 Litvinenko gave "the Terkibaev file" to Sergei Yushenkov
Sergei Yushenkov
Sergei Yushenkov was a liberal Russian politician well known for his uncompromising struggle for democracy, rapid free market economic reforms, and higher human rights standards in Russia...
when he visited London, who in turn passed it to Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin...
. A few days later Yushenkov was assassinated. Terkibaev was later killed in Chechnya. According to speaker of Russian State Duma Ivan Rybkin
Ivan Rybkin
Ivan Petrovich Rybkin is a Russian politician; was Chairman of Russia's State Duma in 1994–96 and Secretary of the Security Council in 1996–98.-Early life:...
, "The authorities failed to keep [the FSB agent] Terkibaev out of public view, and that is why he was killed. I know how angry people were, because they knew Terkibaev had authorization from presidential administration."
Beslan school hostage crisis
Alexander Litvinenko suggested in September 2004 that the Russian secret services must have been aware of the plot beforehand, and therefore that they must have themselves organized the attack as a false flagFalse flag
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is flying the flag of a country other than one's own...
operation. He spoke in an interview before his death with Chechenpress
Chechenpress
State Information Agency Chechenpress is the news agency of the Chechen separatists who proclaim themselves to be the representatives of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria...
news agency, and said that because the hostage takers had previously been in FSB custody for committing terrorist attacks, it is inconceivable that they would have been released and still been able to carry out attacks independently. He said that they would only have been freed if they were of use to the FSB, and that even in the case that they were freed without being turned into FSB assets, they would be under a strict surveillance regime that would not have allowed them to carry out the Beslan attack unnoticed. Ella Kesayeva, co-chair of the group Voice of Beslan
Voice of Beslan
Voice of Beslan is a grassroots non-governmental organization created in the aftermath of the 2004 North Ossetian Beslan school hostage crisis, as a splinter group of more radical members of the Mothers of Beslan support and advocacy group of parents of children who were among the victims.The...
, formalized Litvinenko's argument in a November 2008 article in Novaya Gazeta
Novaya Gazeta
Novaya Gazeta is a Russian newspaper well known in the country for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs....
, noting the large number of hostage takers who were in government custody not long before attacking the school, and coming to the same conclusion that Beslan was a false flag attack.
Support of terrorism worldwide by the KGB and FSB
Litvinenko stated that "all the bloodiest terrorists of the world" were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos "The Jackal" Ramírez, Yassir Arafat, Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan , Kurdish founder of the terrorist organization called Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1978.Öcalan was captured in Nairobi and extradited to the Turkish security force, and sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs...
, Wadie Haddad
Wadie Haddad
Wadie Haddad , also known as Abu Hani, was a Palestinian doctor of medicine and the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's armed wing...
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organisation founded in 1967. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization , the largest being Fatah...
, George Hawi
George Hawi
George Hawi was a Lebanese politician and former secretary general of the Lebanese Communist Party . He was assassinated in 2005.-Background:...
who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou
Ezekias Papaioannou
Ezekias Papaioannou was a Greek Cypriot communist politician and Secretary General of the left wing political party of AKEL....
from Cyprus, Sean Garland
Seán Garland
Seán Garland is a former President of the Workers' Party in Ireland.-Early Life:Born at Belvedere Place, off Mountjoy Square in Dublin, Garland joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. In 1954, he briefly joined the British Army as an IRA agent and collected intelligence on Gough Barracks in...
from Ireland and many others." He says that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents in order to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR. Litvinenko said that "the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin".
Alleged Russia-al-Qaeda connection
In a July 2005 interview with the Polish newspaper RzeczpospolitaRzeczpospolita (newspaper)
Rzeczpospolita is a Polish national daily newspaper, with a circulation around of 160,000. Issued every day except Sunday. Rzeczpospolita was printed in broadsheet format, then switched to compact at October 16, 2007...
, Litvinenko alleged that Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...
, a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, was trained for half of a year by the FSB in Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
in 1997 and called him "an old agent of the FSB". Litvinenko said that after this training, al-Zawahiri "was transferred to Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, where he had never been before and where, following the recommendation of his Lubyanka chiefs, he at once ... penetrated the milieu of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and soon became his assistant in Al Qaeda." Former KGB officer and writer Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy
Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy
Konstantin Georgiyevich Preobrazhenskiy is a former KGB officer, an intelligence expert and the author of several books and numerous articles about Russian secret police organizations....
supported this claim and said that Litvinenko "was responsible for securing the secrecy of Al-Zawahiri's arrival in Russia; he was trained by FSB instructors in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, in 1996-1997.". He said: "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." According to FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko, al-Zawahiri was arrested by Russian authorities in Dagestan in December 1996 and released in May 1997.
When asked in an interview who he thought the originator of the 2005 bombings in London
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....
was, Litvinenko responded saying "You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization, which has made terrorism the main tool of solving of political problems. It is the Russian special services."
On 1 September 2005, al-Zawahiri and Mohammad Sidique Khan
Mohammad Sidique Khan
Mohammad Sidique Khan was the oldest of the four homegrown suicide bombers and believed to be the leader responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings, in which bombs were detonated on three London Underground trains and one bus in central London suicide attacks, killing 52 people excluding the...
claimed responsibility for the attacks for Al Qaeda on a video tape which aired on al-Jazeera.
Danish cartoon controversy
According to Litvinenko, the 2005 controversyJyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
over the publication in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten
Jyllands-Posten
Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten , commonly shortened to Jyllands-Posten or JP, is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Viby, a suburb of Århus, and with a weekday circulation of approximately 120,000 copies, it is among the largest-selling newspaper in Denmark...
of editorial cartoons depicting the Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
was orchestrated by the FSB to punish Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
for its refusal to extradite Chechen separatists
Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is the unrecognized secessionist government of Chechnya. The republic was proclaimed in late 1991 by Dzokhar Dudayev, and fought two devastating wars between separatists and the Russian Federation which denounced secession...
.
Assassination of Anna Politkovskaya
Two weeks before his poisoning, Alexander Litvinenko accused Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
of ordering the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin...
and stated that a former presidential candidate Irina Hakamada
Irina Hakamada
Irina Mutsuovna Khakamada is a Russian politician who ran in the Russian presidential election, 2004. She is a member of The Other Russia coalition.-Biography:...
warned Politkovskaya about threats to her life coming from the Russian president. Litvinenko advised Politkovskaya to escape from Russia immediately. Hakamada denied her involvement in passing any specific threats, and said that she warned Politkovskaya only in general terms more than a year ago. It remains unclear if Litvinenko referred to an earlier statement made by Boris Berezovsky who claimed that former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Boris Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov
Boris Efimovich Nemtsov is a Russian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998. He was a co-founder of the Russian political party Union of Right Forces and is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin.-Early life:...
received a word from Hakamada that Putin threatened her and like-minded colleagues in person. According to Berezovsky, Putin uttered that Hakamada and her colleagues "will take in the head immediately, literally, not figuratively" if they "open the mouth" about the Russian apartment bombings
Russian apartment bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 people and injuring 651. The explosions occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and...
.
Allegations concerning Romano Prodi
According to Litvinenko, FSB deputy chief, General Anatoly TrofimovAnatoly Trofimov
Anatoly Vasilyevich Trofimov was a head of the Soviet KGB investigation department. He personally supervised all Soviet dissident cases including Sergei Kovalyov, Gleb Yakunin, Alexei Smirnov, and Yuri Orlov. He was later a deputy director of the Russian Federal Security Service and became a...
said to him "Don’t go to Italy, there are many KGB agents among the politicians. Romano Prodi is our man there", meaning Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
, the Italian centre-left leader, former Prime Minister of Italy
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
and former President of the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
. The conversation with Trofimov took place in 2000, after the Prodi-KGB scandal broke out in October 1999 due to information about Prodi provided by Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin was a Major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, and co-author with Christopher Andrew of The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, a massive account of Soviet intelligence...
.
In April 2006, a British Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
for London, Gerard Batten
Gerard Batten
Gerard Joseph Batten is a Member of the European Parliament for London for the United Kingdom Independence Party . He was first elected in 2004. He sits as a member of the Independence and Democracy Group....
of the United Kingdom Independence Party
United Kingdom Independence Party
The United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP...
(UKIP) demanded an inquiry into the allegations. According to Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
-based newspaper, the EU Reporter on 3 April 2006, "another high-level source, a former KGB operative in London, has confirmed the story". 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
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and ITV News
ITV News
ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. Since 1955, ITV's news bulletins have been produced by Independent Television News . The channel's news coverage has won awards from the Royal Television Society, Emmy Awards and BAFTAs. Between 2004 and 2008, the...
released documents and video footage, from February 2006, in which Litvinenko repeated his statements about Prodi.
A report by the Conflict Studies Research Centre
Conflict Studies Research Centre
The Conflict Studies Research Centre, or CSRC, was a component of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, based at Shrivenham. It specialised in potential causes of conflict in a wide area ranging from the Baltics to Central Asia....
of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom from May 2007 noted that Trofimov was never the head of the FSB, which did not oversee intelligence operations, had never worked in the intelligence directorate of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
or its successor the SVR
SVR
- Meteorology :*SVR, the SAME code for a Severe Thunderstorm Warning- Technology :* Super Video Recording, a videocassette technology by Grundig, based upon the Philips Video Cassette Recording format* System V Release* SVR Technologies : , India....
, nor had he worked in the counterintelligence department of the intelligence services, nor had he ever worked in Italy, making it difficult to understand how Trofimov would have had knowledge about such a recruitment. Henry Plater-Zyberk
Henry Plater-Zyberk
Henry Plater-Zyberk is senior analyst of the Conflict Studies Research Centre at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Sovietologist and a specialist in Russia and Central Asia. He has also served as an analyst of the British Foreign Office...
, the co-author of the report suggested that Trofimov was "conveniently dead", so "could neither confirm nor deny the story", and noted Litvinenko's history of making accusations without evidence to back them up.
Cooperation with Spanish authorities
Shortly before his death Litvinenko tipped off Spanish authorities on several organised crime bosses with links to Spain. During a meeting in May 2006 he allegedly provided security officials with information on the locations, roles, and activities of several "Russian" mafia figures with ties to Spain, including Izguilov, Zahkar KalashovZakhar Kalashov
Zakhar Kniazevich Kalashov is a notorious gangster and thief in law, who is widely believed to be one of the most prominent members of the Russian-Georgian Mafia. Kalashov was born in Tbilisi in 1953. Although at various times Kalashov was arrested in the United Arab Emirates and Spain, as of...
, and Tariel Oniani
Tariel Oniani
Tariel Oniani is an ethnic Georgian mobster and 'thief in law'. He is reportedly a member of the "Kutaisi" criminal gang.- Background and activity in Spain :...
.
Other allegations
In his book Gang from Lubyanka, Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
during his time at the FSB was personally involved in protecting
Protection racket
A protection racket is an extortion scheme whereby a criminal group or individual coerces a victim to pay money, supposedly for protection services against violence or property damage. Racketeers coerce reticent potential victims into buying "protection" by demonstrating what will happen if they...
the drug trafficking from Afghanistan organized by Abdul Rashid Dostum
Abdul Rashid Dostum
Abdul Rashid Dostum is a former pro-Soviet fighter during the Soviet war in Afghanistan and is considered by many to be the leader of Afghanistan's Uzbek community and the party Junbish-e Milli-yi Islami-yi Afghanistan...
http://www.compromat.ru/main/fsb/litvinenkolpgg4.htm. In December 2003 Russian authorities confiscated over 4000 copies of the book.
Litvinenko 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
Akhmed Zakayev
Akhmed Khalidovich Zakayev is the former Deputy Prime Minister and the current Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria , which is unrecognised by other countries...
and Boris, and me.". He also said that "It was considered in our service that poison is an easier weapon than a pistol." He referred to a secret laboratory in Moscow
Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services
Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services, alternatively known as Laboratory 1, Laboratory 12, and Kamera which means "The Chamber" in Russian, was a covert research and development facility of the Soviet secret police agencies,which notably also developed antidotes and internal...
that still continues development of deadly poisons, according to him.
In an article written by Litvinenko in July 2006, and published online on Zakayev's Chechenpress
Chechenpress
State Information Agency Chechenpress is the news agency of the Chechen separatists who proclaim themselves to be the representatives of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria...
website, he claimed that Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
is a paedophile. Litvinenko also claimed that Anatoly Trofimov
Anatoly Trofimov
Anatoly Vasilyevich Trofimov was a head of the Soviet KGB investigation department. He personally supervised all Soviet dissident cases including Sergei Kovalyov, Gleb Yakunin, Alexei Smirnov, and Yuri Orlov. He was later a deputy director of the Russian Federal Security Service and became a...
and Artyom Borovik
Artyom Borovik
Artyom Genrikhovich Borovik was a prominent Russian journalist and media magnate. He was the son of a Soviet journalist, Genrikh Borovik, who worked for many years as a foreign correspondent in the U.S.-Journalism:...
knew of the alleged paedophilia. The claims have been called "wild", and "sensational and unsubstantiated" in the British media. Litvinenko made the allegation after Putin kissed a boy on his belly while stopping to chat with some tourists during a walk in the Kremlin grounds on 28 June 2006. The incident was recalled in a webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
organised by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and Yandex
Yandex
Yandex is a Russian IT company which operates the largest search engine in Russia and develops a number of Internet-based services and products. Yandex is ranked as 5-th world largest search engine...
, in which over 11,000 people asked Putin to explain the act, to which he responded, "He seemed very independent and serious... I wanted to cuddle him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture. He seemed so nice...There is nothing behind it." It has been suggested that the incident was a "clumsy attempt" to soften Putin's image in the lead-up the 32nd G8 Summit
32nd G8 summit
The 32nd summit of the G8 group of industrialised nations took place from 15 July to 17 July 2006 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The venue was the Constantine Palace, which is located in Strelna on the Gulf of Finland...
which was held in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
in July 2006.
Poisoning and death
Radionuclide
A radionuclide is an atom with an unstable nucleus, which is a nucleus characterized by excess energy available to be imparted either to a newly created radiation particle within the nucleus or to an atomic electron. The radionuclide, in this process, undergoes radioactive decay, and emits gamma...
polonium-210
Polonium
Polonium is a chemical element with the symbol Po and atomic number 84, discovered in 1898 by Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie. A rare and highly radioactive element, polonium is chemically similar to bismuth and tellurium, and it occurs in uranium ores. Polonium has been studied for...
after the Health Protection Agency
Health Protection Agency
The Health Protection Agency, or, in Welsh, Yr Asiantaeth Diogelu Iechyd is a statutory corporation. It is an independent UK organisation that was set up by the government in 2003 to protect the public from threats to their health from infectious diseases and environmental hazards...
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
Dmitry Kovtun
Dmitry Vladimirovich Kovtun is a Russian businessman and ex-KGB agent who met the poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko several times in London, the last time hours before Litvinenko fell ill...
and Andrei Lugovoi
Andrei Lugovoi
Andrey Konstantinovich Lugovoy is a Russian politician and businessman and deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation for the LDPR. He is a former KGB bodyguard and the ex-head of the security firm "Ninth Wave."...
. Though both denied any wrongdoing, a leaked US diplomatic cable
United States diplomatic cables leak
The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began in February 2010 when WikiLeaks—a non-profit organization that publishes submissions from anonymous whistleblowers—began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates,...
revealed that Kovtun had left Polonium traces in the house and car he had used in Hamburg http://213.251.145.96/cable/2006/12/06HAMBURG85.html. 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-Acting Prime minister Yegor Gaidar
Yegor Gaidar
Yegor Timurovich Gaidar was a Soviet and Russian economist, politician and author, and was the Acting Prime Minister of Russia from 15 June 1992 to 14 December 1992....
(who also suffered from a mysterious illness in November 2006). Later, he had lunch at Itsu
Itsu
Itsu Ltd, previously Tsu, is a chain of sushi eat-in and take-away restaurants in London, England. There are restaurants at Canary Wharf, Chelsea, Notting Hill and Soho, plus a further twenty eight branches, with many providing a delivery service...
, a sushi
Sushi
is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...
restaurant in Piccadilly in London, with an Italian acquaintance and nuclear waste expert, Mario Scaramella
Mario Scaramella
Mario Scaramella is an Italian lawyer, self-styled security consultant and nuclear waste expert who came to international prominence in 2006 in connection with the poisoning of the ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko...
, to whom he made the allegations regarding Italy's Prime Minister
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
. Scaramella, attached to the Mitrokhin Commission investigating KGB penetration of Italian politics, claimed to have information on the assassination
Anna Politkovskaya assassination
The assassination of Anna Politkovskaya , the Russian journalist, writer and human rights activist, took place on Saturday, 7 October 2006. She was well known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin...
of Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin...
, 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.
Conversion to Sunni Islam
Two days before his death Litvinenko informed his father that he had converted to Sunni IslamSunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....
. Litvinenko's conversion to Sunni Islam and the related wish for Muslim funeral rites were recognized by his father. 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
Muslim Parliament
The Muslim Parliament of Great Britain is a Muslim organization founded in 1992 in London by Dr Kalim Siddiqui, Director of the Muslim Institute, based on a proposal published in July 1990 under the title The Muslim Manifesto. The Muslim Parliament consists mainly of appointees, including women and...
of Great Britain, contended that Litvineko actually converted to Sunni Islam 10 days before he was poisoned.
Akhmed Zakayev
Akhmed Zakayev
Akhmed Khalidovich Zakayev is the former Deputy Prime Minister and the current Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria , which is unrecognised by other countries...
, Foreign Minister of Chechen government-in-exile who lived next door to Mr Litvinenko and considered him "like a brother," said: "He was read to from the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
the day before he died and had told his wife and family that he wanted to be buried in accordance with Muslim tradition."
The ceremony was followed by a private memorial at which the ensemble Tonus Peregrinus
Tonus Peregrinus
Tonus Peregrinus is a vocal ensemble specialising in early music and contemporary sacred music, especially that of founder and director, Antony Pitts...
sang sacred music by Russian composers Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Sergei Rachmaninov, Victor Kalinnikov, and three works by British composer Antony Pitts
Antony Pitts
Antony Pitts is a British composer, producer and conductor.His compositions have been published by Faber Music, with 2 CDs of choral music on Hyperion Records and other recordings on Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, and Unknown Public. He was a Senior Producer at BBC Radio 3 until 2005...
.
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 on 23 November, and Scotland YardScotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
stated that inquiries into the circumstances of how Litvinenko became ill would continue.
On 24 November a posthumous statement was released, in which Litvinenko directly accused Vladimir Putin of poisoning him. Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb, who is also the chairman of Boris Berezovsky's Civil Liberties Fund
International Foundation for Civil Liberties
The International Foundation for Civil Liberties is a non-profit organization established by the Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky in November 2000. The Guardian 21 December 2000 Critics see it as an anti-Russian propaganda organization....
, claimed Litvinenko had dictated it to him three days earlier. Andrei Nekrasov
Andrei Nekrasov
Andrei Lvovich Nekrasov is a Russian film and TV director from Saint Petersburg.Andrei Nekrasov studied acting and directing at the State Institute for Theater and Film in his native Saint Petersburg. He studied comparative literature and philosophy at the University of Paris, taking a master's...
said his friend Litvinenko and Litvinenko's lawyer composed the statement in Russian on 21 November and translated it to English.
Putin disputed the authenticity of this note while attending a Russia-EU summit in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
and claimed it was being used for political purposes. William Dunkerley, in a briefing from May 2007 for a round table which discussed Litvinenko's case and the way it was handled by the Russian
Media of Russia
Media of Russia is diverse, with a wide range of broadcast and print outlets are available to the consumer. In total, there are 93,000 media outlets in Russia, including 27,000 newspapers and magazines and 330 television channels. Television is the most popular source of information. There are...
and Western media, called into question the authenticity of the statement, noting that the statement did not read like a statement made on one's deathbed and was typed in English, a language which Litvinenko was far from proficient in, with the signature and date handwritten. Goldfarb later stated that Litvinenko instructed him to write a note "in good English" in which Putin was to be accused of his poisoning. Goldfarb also stated that he read the note to Litvinenko in English and Russian, to which he claims Litvinenko agreed "with every word of it" and signed it.
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
(West side) 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
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
entitled "Why I believe Putin wanted me dead".
In an interview with the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
broadcast on 16 December 2006, Yuri Shvets
Yuri Shvets
Yuri B. Shvets was a Major in the KGB during the years 1980-1990. From April 1985 to 1987 he worked in the Washington Rezidentura of the KGB....
said that Litvinenko had created a 'due diligence
Due diligence
"Due diligence" is a term used for a number of concepts involving either an investigation of a business or person prior to signing a contract, or an act with a certain standard of care. It can be a legal obligation, but the term will more commonly apply to voluntary investigations...
' 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
Andrei Lugovoi
Andrey Konstantinovich Lugovoy is a Russian politician and businessman and deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation for the LDPR. He is a former KGB bodyguard and the ex-head of the security firm "Ninth Wave."...
, 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.
According to Mary Dejevsky, the chief editorial writer of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, the view that the British public had of Litvinenko's illness and death was essentially dictated by Berezovsky, who funded an expertly conducted publicity campaign.
UK criminal investigation
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'.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
Andrei Lugovoi
Andrey Konstantinovich Lugovoy is a Russian politician and businessman and deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation for the LDPR. He is a former KGB bodyguard and the ex-head of the security firm "Ninth Wave."...
, 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
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
reported that the British government was preparing an extradition request asking that Andrei Lugovoi
Andrei Lugovoi
Andrey Konstantinovich Lugovoy is a Russian politician and businessman and deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation for the LDPR. He is a former KGB bodyguard and the ex-head of the security firm "Ninth Wave."...
be returned to the UK to stand trial for Litvinenko's murder. On 22 May 2007 the Crown Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
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.
A British police investigation resulted in several suspects for the murder, but in May 2007, the British Director of Public Prosecutions
Director of Public Prosecutions
The Director of Public Prosecutions is the officer charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world...
, Ken Macdonald, announced that his government would seek to extradite
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
Andrei Lugovoi
Andrei Lugovoi
Andrey Konstantinovich Lugovoy is a Russian politician and businessman and deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation for the LDPR. He is a former KGB bodyguard and the ex-head of the security firm "Ninth Wave."...
, the chief suspect of the case, from Russia.
On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
officially submitted a request to the Government of Russia
Government of Russia
The Government of the Russian Federation exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister , the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers...
for the extradition of Lugovoi to face criminal charges in the UK.
On 2 October 2011, The Sunday Times published an article wherein the chief prosecutor who investigated the murder of Litvinenko, Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, publicly spoke of his suspicion that the murder was a "state directed execution" carried out by Russia. Until that time, British public officials had stopped short of directly accusing Russia of involvement in the poisoning. "It had all the hallmarks of a state directed execution, committed on the streets of London by a foreign government," Macdonald added .
Russian criminal investigation
Many publications in Russian media suggested that the death of Alexander Litvinenko was connected to Boris Berezovsky. Former FSB chief Nikolay Kovalyov, for whom Litvinenko worked, said that the incident "looks like the hand of Boris Berezovsky. I am sure that no kind of intelligence servicesIntelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
participated." This involvement of Berezovsky was alleged by numerous Russian television shows. Kremlin supporters saw it as a conspiracy to smear Russian government's reputation by engineering a spectacular murder of a Russian dissident abroad.
After Litvinenko's death, traces of polonium-210
Polonium
Polonium is a chemical element with the symbol Po and atomic number 84, discovered in 1898 by Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie. A rare and highly radioactive element, polonium is chemically similar to bismuth and tellurium, and it occurs in uranium ores. Polonium has been studied for...
were found in an office of Berezovsky. Litvinenko had visited Berezovsky's office as well as many other places in the hours after his poisoning. The British Health Protection Agency made extensive efforts to ensure that locations Litvinenko visited and anyone who had contact with Litvinenko after his poisoning, were not at risk.
Russian prosecutors were not allowed to investigate the office. Russian authorities have also been unable to question Berezovsky. The Foreign Ministry complained that Britain was obstructing its attempt to send prosecutors to London to interview more than 100 people, including Berezovsky.
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. However the British ambassador to Russia, Anne Pringle
Anne Pringle
Dame Anne Fyfe Pringle DCMG is a British diplomat and current HM Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Russian Federation.From 2001 to 2004, Pringle was the British ambassador to the Czech Republic...
, claimed that London has already submitted sufficient evidence to extradite him to Britain.
Inquest in London
On October 13, 2011 Dr. Andrew Reed, the CoronerCoroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
of St. Pancras announced that he will hold a full public inquest into Litvinenko's death, which will include the examination of all existing theories of the murder, including possible complicity of Russian government.Litvinenko coroner to examine if Russian state behind killing The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
13 Oct 2011.
Litvinenko vs Russian Federation in Strasbourg
In May 2007 Marina Litvinenko registered a complaint against Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg accusing RF of violating her husband's right to life, and failing to conduct full investigation. Strasbourg court sets deadline for Russia on Litvinenko case RIA Novosti15 Dec 2010His books
- Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Felshtinsky, "Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror" Encounter Books, New York, 2007 ISBN 978-159403-2011
- Yuri Felshtinsky, Alexander Litvinenko, and Geoffrey Andrews. Blowing up Russia: Terror from withinBlowing up Russia: Terror from withinBlowing Up Russia: Terror from Within is a book written by Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky. The authors alleged that the Russian apartment bombings and other September 1999 terrorist acts were committed by the Federal Security Service...
Gibson Square Books, London, 2007, ISBN 978-1903933954 - Alexander Litvinenko: "Allegations – Selected Works by Alexander Litvinenko", translated from Russian and edited by Pavel Stroilov, introduction by Vladimir BukovskyVladimir BukovskyVladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist....
, Publisher: Aquilion (12 November 2007), ISBN 978-1907997054 - A. Litvinenko and A. Goldfarb. Criminal gang from Lubyanka GRANI, New York, 2002, ISBN 978-0-9723878-0-4
- А. Литвиненко Лубянская преступная группировка GRANI, New York, 2002, ISBN 0-9723878-0-3
Books and Films about him
- Alan CowellAlan CowellAlan S. Cowell is a British journalist and a correspondent for The New York Times. Since 2008 he has been senior correspondent for NYTimes.com based in Paris....
: "The Terminal Spy: A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal and Murder", Random House, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7393-7054-4 - Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. "Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB.Death of a DissidentDeath of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB is a book written by Alexander Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko about the life and death of her husband, former FSB officer, and double-agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned by the radioactive element...
" Free Press, New York, 2007. ISBN 978-1416551652. - Martin SixsmithMartin Sixsmith-Education:Sixsmith was born in Cheshire and educated at the Manchester Grammar School where he studied Russian to O-level, and subsequently A-level, then at Oxford, Harvard, the Sorbonne University in Paris, and in St. Petersburg , in Russia...
: "The Litvinenko File; the True Story of a Death Foretold", Publisher: Macmillan (2 April 2007) ISBN 0230531547 ISBN 978-0230531543 - Andrei NekrasovAndrei NekrasovAndrei Lvovich Nekrasov is a Russian film and TV director from Saint Petersburg.Andrei Nekrasov studied acting and directing at the State Institute for Theater and Film in his native Saint Petersburg. He studied comparative literature and philosophy at the University of Paris, taking a master's...
: "Rebellion: the Litvinenko CaseRebellion: the Litvinenko CaseRebellion: The Litvinenko Case is a 2007 Russian documentary film covering the death of ex-Russian spy and dissident, Alexander Litvinenko, who was assassinated in London, United Kingdom in 2006...
", 2007, Dreamscanner. Banned in Russia. Official site: http://www.dreamscanner-productions.com/litvinenko/index.html