E European History

» dantilles - Spy Poisoning

Interesting to read your thoughts on the murder of Litvinenko. I definately agree that Russia today still has strong links with its past (Putin of course is ex-KGB himself). The problem is that this isn't 'just one story that happened to rise to the surface'. There are all to many convenient deaths happening in Russia at the moment. Journalistic and political opponents seem to have a convenient habit of ending up in a morgue or prison cell. You are probably right though that we're unlikely to ever hear the truth behind this murder, or many of the others. I do hope though that whatever the British investigation into this turns up, it won't be brushed under the carpet for the sake of good relations with Russia. It's one thing if the Kremlin bumps off political opponents at home, quite another if it does it on foreign territory (and causing harm to forign citizens at the same time).

http://britishaffairs.suite101.com/artic...

http://britishaffairs.suite101.com/blogs...

-- posted by dantilles

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» Kerry Kubilius - Spy Poisoning

In response to Spy Poisoning posted by dantilles:

Stories like this rarely make international (okay, US) media. I have no doubt this happens regularly. However, I wonder, too, *if* this was a politically motivated assasination that the whole effort would have been conducted in such a messy manner.

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» dantilles - Spy Poisoning

In response to Spy Poisoning posted by Slavophile:

I agree that it seems like a rather complicated way to kill someone and one which risks a lot of collateral damage. Surely there are simpler poisons to use or many other quicker and less obvious ways of killing someone (and ones which would attract less press attention). This raises the prospect that either someone was trying to send a message (i.e. if you mess with us then it's going to be a slow, painful death) or that perhaps someone anti-Putin wanted an attention-grabbing stunt to discredit him.

I was reading in an English newspaper recently though that in the 1950s the Soviets attempted to kill a Russian spy who had defected to the West using radioactive polonium. So apparently this rather messy method has been used before.

-- posted by dantilles

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» Kerry Kubilius - Spy Poisoning

In response to Spy Poisoning posted by dantilles:

British law enforcement officials are "calling" this a murder, yes. And it's true there might be truth in that. But what if it was a smuggling/black market scheme gone wrong?

I find it difficult to have an opinion on this matter. Not having read everything about the case, and not having read a great deal about polonium, I don't feel as though I can make a good argument about it. However, Russian intelligence officials would be the first to know that polonium could be traced from one location and one person to the next, which is effectively what the British investigative team is doing.

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